Nova Scotia Department of Finance

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April 28, 2025
BUSINESS OPENING AND CLOSING, JANUARY 2025

Monthly (January 2025 vs December 2024, seasonally adjusted)

The number of active businesses in Nova Scotia declined by 0.09% from December 2024 to January 2025, falling to 21,011 active businesses.

Nationally, active businesses were down by 0.11%. Six provinces reported lower numbers of active businesses in January 2025 compared with December 2024. The largest declne was reported in Ontario followed closely by Alberta, 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 January 2025, Nova Scotia’s business continuing rate was 95.7%, above the national average (95.1%). Québec reported the highest business continuing rates (96.4%) while Alberta (94.6%) reported the lowest.

Nova Scotia’s business opening rate was 4.4% in January 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 4.4% in January 2025, below the national average of 4.9%. Alberta reported the highest business closing rate (5.4%), followed closely by Ontario, while Québec had the lowest business closing rate (3.4%).

Year-over-year (January 2025 vs January 2024)

Compared with January 2024, the number of active businesses was up 0.92% for Nova Scotia. Nationally, active businesses were down 0.13% compared to January 2024. Newfoundland and Labrador reported the largest increase in active businesses, followed by Nova Scotia and Alberta. 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 1.7% from January 2024 to January 2025.

Out of 35 CMAs, 17 reported growth in active businesses over the past 12 months. Calgary and Saskatoon reported the largest rises in the number of active businesses while Barrie reported the largest decline.

Compared with January 2024, nine sectors saw an increase in active businesses in Nova Scotia in January 2025 with the largest increase (in percentage terms) in admin/support and arts/entertainment/recreation. The steepest decline was in mining/oil/gas.

Nationally, the number of active businesses was down for twelve of the 16 business sector industries, with the largest declines in mining/oil/gas and transportation industries. The largest gain was in arts/entertainment/recreation.

Statistics Canada has broken out specific data for tourism-related industries. Compared with January 2024, the number of active tourism-related businesses rose 1.9% in Nova Scotia as of January 2025, with gains in four of the five sectors. Transportation 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 0.1% from January 2024 to January 2025. There was growth in all sectors, except accommodations, with transportation reporting the largest gains.

Trends

There has been a downward trend in forestry/fishing active businesses with the last four months showing no change in active businesses. Mining/quarrying has been steadily declining and but was stable in December 2024 and January 2025. Utilities exhibited a peak in November 2024 followed by a small decline in December.

From 2020-2025, 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 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 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.

Active businesses in transportation grew slightly in recent months. The number of active businesses in real estate/leasing and administrative/support/call centers have been stable 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.