“Among Canadians, the rate of self-employment—that is, the number of self-employed workers as a share of total employment—has been relatively stable, hovering around 15% over the last decade. However, when we focus on the core-age group (those aged 40 and older), interesting patterns emerge:

Overall Self-Employment Rate:
In 2018, approximately 2.9 million Canadians were self-employed, up from 1.2 million in 1976. Self-employed workers accounted for 15% of total employment, compared to 12% four decades earlier.

The highest self-employment rate was observed in British Columbia.

Self-Employment Among Seniors:
According to census data, in 2006, 44.1% of senior men and 28.6% of senior women who had a job were self-employed.”
Source: Microsoft Co-Pilot from Statistics Canada Data

Big vs Small: Size Matters

In an increasingly important small business sector, the professional, scientific and technical services ‘industry’ has the largest number of firms or companies of any sector within the NAICS classification system. More than 99% of these firms are small, and most of these are run by self-employed practitioners^[1]. However, within that group of more than 33 thousand firms, just ten large firms accounted for 44.8% of total revenue.

The revenue models – and types of clients – differ substantially for these firms.

^[1] The self-employed includes, incorporated and unincorporated businesses with – or without – paid employees.