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July 28, 2025BUSINESS OPENING AND CLOSING, APRIL 2025 Monthly (April 2025 vs March 2025, seasonally adjusted)
The number of active businesses in Nova Scotia edged up by 0.02% from March 2025 to April 2025, rising by 5 to 20,934 active businesses.
Nationally, active businesses rose by 0.07%, with gains in eight provinces. Saskatchewan and Manitoba reported the fastest gains. Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador reported declines in active businesses.
A business will be classified as 'opening' if it had no employment in the previous month and then has employment in the next month. A business is 'closing' if it had employment in the previous month and no employment in the current month. For opening and closing, the reason could be a permanent change (i.e. business exit) or temporary for reasons such as seasonal operations, capital maintenance or restructuring. Continuing business are those that had employment in both the current and previous month. Active businesses are the sum of continuing and opening business in the current month.
The rate at which business either opened, continued or closed can be examined to see how the number of active businesses has changed. The calculation for the opening, continuing and closure rates are based on the number of active businesses in the previous month.
Most businesses continue operating each month. In April 2025, Nova Scotia's business continuing rate was 95.6%, slightly above the national average (95.3%). Québec reported the highest business continuing rates (96.5%) while Prince Edward Island reported the lowest continuing rate (94.5%).
Nova Scotia's business opening rate was 4.4% in April 2025, below the national average of 4.8%. Prince Edward Island and Alberta had the highest business opening rates (5.4%) while Québec had the lowest (3.5%).
Nova Scotia's business closing rate was 4.5% in April 2025, just below the national average of 4.7%. Prince Edward Island reported the highest business closing rate (5.5%), while Québec had the lowest business closing rate (3.5%).
Year-over-year (April 2025 vs April 2024)
Compared with April 2024, the number of active businesses was up 0.06% for Nova Scotia. Nationally, active businesses were down 0.07% compared to April 2024. Alberta reported the largest increase in active businesses and Prince Edward Island reported the largest year-over-year percentage decline in active businesses.
The number of active businesses in the Halifax and East Hants Census Metropolitan Area was up 1.1% from April 2024 to April 2025.
Out of 35 CMAs, 21 reported growth in active businesses over the past 12 months. Calgary, Edmonton and Saskatoon reported the largest gains in the number of active businesses while Peterborough and Thunder Bay reported the largest decline.
Compared with April 2024, six sectors saw an increase in active businesses in Nova Scotia in April 2025 with the largest percentage increase in forestry/fishing. The steepest decline was in professional/technical services and retail trade.
Nationally, the number of active businesses was down for all business sector industries except utilities and arts/entertainment/recreation, with the largest declines in forestry/fishing and mining/oil/gas.
Statistics Canada has broken out specific data for tourism-related industries. Compared with April 2024, the number of active tourism-related businesses rose 0.3% in Nova Scotia as of April 2025, with gains in all subsectors except accommodations.
Nationally the number of tourism-related businesses edged up 0.03% from April 2024 to April 2025. Transportation, travel services, and recreation/entertainment reported growth while accommodations and food/beverage services declined.
Trends
There has been a downward trend in forestry/fishing active businesses, but in the three months prior to April there was a substantial rise in active businesses. Mining/quarrying has been steadily declining. Utilities have remained stable throughout 2025.
From 2020-2025, the number of active businesses in construction grew at a steady pace with a slight dip in recent months. Manufacturing businesses have remained stable for the past 3 years, with only a slight decline in recent months.
There have been small gains in active businesses for personal/repair businesses in recent months, and small gains in arts/recreation in recent months. Accommodation/food services has declined in recent months.
Retail and wholesale businesses have declined in the past two years.
Active businesses in transportation dipped slightly in recent months. The number of active businesses in real estate/leasing have recently declined and administrative/support/call centers have seen modest growth in recent months.
Professional/technical services active businesses have declined in recent months after steady gains in the last two years. The decline in finance/insurance/management businesses has slowed, while the number of active businesses in information/culture has been stable, with only a slight dip in the most recent results.
The source data is seasonally adjusted. The data may not aggregate due to firms being classified into multiple industry or geography.
Source: Statistics Canada. Table 33-10-0270-01 Experimental estimates for business openings and closures for Canada, provinces and territories, census metropolitan areas; Methodology: Business Opening and Closing
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