May 26, 2025BUSINESS OPENING AND CLOSING, FEBRUARY 2025 Monthly (February 2025 vs January 2025, seasonally adjusted)
The number of active businesses in Nova Scotia declined by 0.31% from January 2025 to February 2025, falling to 20,916 active businesses.
Nationally, active businesses were essentially unchanged (+0.001%). Six provinces reported lower numbers of active businesses in February 2025 compared with January 2025. The largest decline was reported in Newfoundland and Labrador followed closely by Nova Scotia, while the largest gain was in British Columbia.
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 February 2025, Nova Scotia's business continuing rate was 95.2%, same as the national average. Québec reported the highest business continuing rates (96.8%) while Newfoundland and Labrador (94.6%) reported the lowest.
Nova Scotia's business opening rate was 4.6% in February 2025, below the national average of 4.8%. Alberta had the highest business opening rate (5.3%) while Québec had the lowest (3.6%).
Nova Scotia's business closing rate was 4.9% in February 2025, above as the national average 4.8%. Prince Edward Island reported the highest business closing rate (5.3%), followed closely by Alberta, while Québec had the lowest business closing rate (3.5%).
Year-over-year (February 2025 vs February 2024)
Compared with February 2024, the number of active businesses was up 0.21% for Nova Scotia. Nationally, active businesses were down 0.15% compared to February 2024. Alberta reported the largest increase in active businesses and Ontario reported the largest year-over-year decline in active businesses.
The number of active businesses in the Halifax and East Hants Census Metropolitan Area was up 0.9% from February 2024 to February 2025.
Out of 35 CMAs, 18 reported growth in active businesses over the past 12 months. Calgary and Saskatoon reported the largest rises in the number of active businesses while Thunder Bay reported the largest decline.
Compared with February 2024, eight sectors saw an increase in active businesses in Nova Scotia in February 2025 with the largest increase (in percentage terms) in forestry/fishing and arts/entertainment/recreation. The steepest decline was in mining/oil/gas.
Nationally, the number of active businesses was down for all business sector industries except utilities and arts/entertainment/recreation, with the largest declines in mining/oil/gas and wholesale industries.
Statistics Canada has broken out specific data for tourism-related industries. Compared with February 2024, the number of active tourism-related businesses rose 1.6% in Nova Scotia as of February 2025, with gains in four of the five sectors. Recreation/entertainment reported the fastest year-over-year growth in active tourism businesses in Nova Scotia, while accommodations reported the only decline.
Nationally the number of tourism-related businesses increased 0.01% from February 2024 to February 2025. Transportation reported the fastest growth while travel services reported the largest decline.
Trends
There has been a downward trend in forestry/fishing active businesses with the last three months showing slight gain in active businesses. Mining/quarrying has been steadily declining and but was slowly growing in the last 3 months. Utilities exhibited a peak in November 2024 followed by a small decline in December and remained stable thereafter.
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.
There have been small gains in active businesses for personal/repair, decelerating in the most recent month, and small gains in arts/recreation in recent months, but these sectors have remained somewhat stable since 2023. Accommodation/food services has been stable 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.
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.
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