Investment in residential structures falls on weak resale activity
Real gross domestic product was unchanged in the first quarter of 2026. Higher imports of goods, particularly gold, were offset by accumulations of business inventories. Business investment in residential structures fell 2.0% in the first quarter. The decline in these investments was led by continued weakness in resale housing activity, which fell 9.9% in the first quarter after falling 3.4% in 2025 overall.
Source: Gross domestic product, income and expenditure, first quarter 2026
Faster growth in labour productivity among industries dependent on United States demand
Canadian industries dependent on US demand are those in which 35% of jobs or more depended on US demand for Canadian exports of goods and services in 2023. From 2019 to 2024, labour productivity in such industries grew by 4.4%, compared with 0.5% in the rest of the business sector. While industries dependent on US demand collectively outperformed other industries in terms of labour productivity growth from 2019 to 2024, this was not even across the 22 subsectors of these industries.
Availability of fresh vegetables continues downward trend
In 2025, Canadian production of fresh vegetables, poultry meat, eggs and wheat flour rose to record levels. For poultry meat and eggs, this increase in production translated into record availability for both commodities. The availability of fresh fruit (including citrus) increased 3.7% year over year to 77.9 kilograms per person in 2025. On the other hand, the availability of fresh vegetables (excluding potatoes) fell 3.3% to 61.8 kilograms per person, the seventh consecutive year-over-year decline. From 2024 to 2025, the availability of wheat flour increased 6.0% to 60.0 kilograms per person. Canadian production of wheat flour reached a record high of 2.7 million metric tonnes in 2025.
Source: Food availability, 2025
The violent Crime Severity Index in rural areas is almost 50% higher than in urban areas
In 2024, the violent Crime Severity Index (CSI) stood at 134.8 in rural areas and 92.5 in urban areas, a 46% difference. This is a reversal of the situation 15 years earlier. In 2009, the violent CSI in rural areas (84.5) was lower than in urban areas (95.3). In 2024, the homicide rate was 70% higher in rural areas (2.92 homicides per 100,000 population) than in urban areas (1.72 homicides per 100,000 population). In rural areas, the rate of impaired driving was almost three times higher (360 incidents per 100,000 population) than the rate in urban areas (126 incidents per 100,000 population).
Source: Police-reported crime in rural and urban areas in the Canadian provinces, 2024
Temporary foreign agricultural workers
Every year, Canadian farm operators hire tens of thousands of temporary foreign workers from around the world to get the work done. Temporary foreign workers in the agriculture and agri-food sectors, by industry, topping 74,000 a year since 2023. In 2024, about two in five of these workers hailed from Mexico (43%), one in four came from Guatemala (26%) and one in ten (12%) came from Jamaica. Most temporary foreign workers in agriculture are recruited through the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program to come to Canada during the growing season and leave afterwards.
Source: Temporary foreign agricultural workers: From far afield to our fields
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).