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March 24, 2025BUSINESS OPENING AND CLOSING, DECEMBER 2024 Monthly (December 2024 vs November 2024, seasonally adjusted)
The number of active businesses in Nova Scotia rose by 0.06% from November to December 2024, climbing to 21,091 active businesses.
Nationally, active businesses were up by 0.09%. Six provinces reported higher numbers of active businesses in December 2024 compared with November 2024. The largest rise was reported in Québec, followed by Newfoundland and Labrador, while the largest decline was in Manitoba.
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 December 2024, Nova Scotia's business continuing rate was 95.8%, above the national average (95.4%). Québec reported the highest business continuing rates (96.4%) while Alberta (95.1%) reported the lowest.
Nova Scotia's business opening rate was 4.3% in December 2024, below the national average of 4.7%. Prince Edward Island had the highest business opening rate (5.2%) while Manitoba had the lowest (3.9%).
Nova Scotia's business closing rate was 4.3% in December 2024, below the national average of 4.7%. Alberta reported the highest business closing rate (5.0%), followed closely by British Columbia, while Québec had the lowest business closing rate (3.7%).
Year-over-year (December 2024 vs December 2023)
Compared with December 2023, the number of active businesses was up 1.66% for Nova Scotia. Nationally, active businesses were up 0.11% compared to December 2023. Newfoundland and Labrador reported the largest increase in active businesses, followed by Nova Scotia. Manitoba, British Columbia and Québec reported the only year-over-year declines in active businesses.
The number of active businesses in the Halifax and East Hants Census Metropolitan Area was up 2.0% from December 2023 to December 2024.
Out of 35 CMAs, 22 reported increases in active businesses over the past 12 months. St. John's, Calgary, and Saskatoon reported the largest rises in the number of active businesses while Vancouver reported the largest decline.
Compared with December 2023, ten sectors saw an increase in active businesses in Nova Scotia in December 2024 with the largest increase (in percentage terms) in admin/support. The steepest decline was in mining/oil/gas.
Nationally, the number of active businesses was down for eleven of the 16 business sector industries, with the largest declines in transportation and forestry/fishing. The largest gain was in arts/entertainment/recreation.
Statistics Canada has broken out specific data for tourism-related industries. Compared with December 2023, the number of active tourism-related businesses rose 2.3% in Nova Scotia as of December 2024, with gains in four of the five sectors. Transportation reported the fastest year-over-year growth in active tourism businesses in Nova Scotia, while travel services reported no growth.
Nationally the number of tourism-related businesses increased 0.8% from December 2023 to December 2024. There was growth in all sectors, with transportation reporting the largest gains and accomodation the slowest growth.
Trends
There has been a downward trend in forestry/fishing active businesses with slight growth in recent months. Mining/quarrying exhibited a faster decline in December. Utilities has seen modest growth over the past year.
From 2020-2024, the number of active businesses in construction grew at a steady pace. Manufacturing businesses have remained stable for the past 3 years.
There have been small increases in active businesses for personal/repair, accelerating in recent months, and small decreases in arts/recreation in recent months, but these sectors have remained somewhat stable since 2023. Accommodation/food services has seen modest growth in recent months, after a slow decline in active businesses since peaking in May of 2024.
Retail and wholesale businesses have declined in the past two years.
Real estate/leasing and administrative/support/call centre active businesses grew in recent months. The number of active businesses in transportation has remained at similar levels since 2021.
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.
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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