It’s coming up on eight years since recreational cannabis use in Canada was legalized in 2018. Before that, virtually all cannabis transactions were conducted illegally, in the shadows, where everything, including accurate data, were sketchy at best.
Today, we know how and where legal cannabis is grown, where it is warehoused and sold, and how much it is taxed.
Half of Canada’s cannabis retailers are small businesses, employing four people or less
You will find legal cannabis dispensaries across Canada, precisely 3,295 retail businesses with employees at the end of 2025, on main streets in big cities, in suburban strip malls and in small towns, too.
In 2025, just over half (51.4%) of Canada’s cannabis retailers were small shops with one to four employees. Meanwhile, we counted two mega retailers with 200 to 499 employees.
Cannabis sales are growing, and so are government revenues
Cannabis sales rose 6.1% year over year to $5.5 billion in the 2024/2025 fiscal year, with sales up by over one-third (+37.1%) compared with three years earlier.
Federal and provincial governments gleaned $2.5 billion in revenue from cannabis sales in 2024/2025, up 11.5% year over year.
The cannabis industry: A behind-the-scenes snapshot
While brick-and-mortar shops are the most visible face of legal cannabis today, supporting them are a network of manufacturers, wholesalers and, of course, growers, which are often small businesses.
In 2025, Canada’s 123 cannabis product manufacturers were surprisingly diverse in terms of company size, ranging from 36 small manufacturers employing one to four people to 11 manufacturers employing 100 people or more, with one surpassing 500 employees.
Half of Canada’s 16 cannabis wholesalers were small, employing one to four people.
Of Canada’s 377 indoor cannabis growers, just over one in four (26.5%) were small businesses, employing one to four people, while 25 of them employed 100 people or more.
A further 52 enterprises grew cannabis in the great outdoors, over two-thirds (71.2%) of which were small, employing nine people or less.
Further reading
Contact information
For more information, contact the Statistical Information Service (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).