Aging demographics and the real estate boom of the past four years have benefited Canadian small businesses, according to a comprehensive CIBC report entitled Canadian Small Business: A Growing Force.

“Over the next decade, the number of seniors over 85 years old will climb by more than 50%,” said Benjamin Tal, senior economist, CIBC World Markets. “With an aging population, home health care and funeral services represent significant growth opportunities for small business in the future.”

The current momentum in home health care and the funeral services industry is expected to accelerate. The number of establishments in the funeral services industry, which is dominated by family-owned and operated businesses, has grown by no less than 26% since 1995. The future of the sector is also promising, as aging baby-boomers are increasingly pre-planning their funeral arrangements. In the personal and household services industry, the strongest growth in small business formation is in home health care services, which has increased by 25% since 2000.

The strong housing market has created approximately 300,000 new jobs since 2000 and an estimated 200,000 of those jobs were in Canadian small businesses. Each housing sale generates an estimated $20,000 in additional consumer spending, giving small businesses an even greater boost.

“Small businesses employ close to 70% of workers in construction and real estate,” said Tal. “As a result, many of the new jobs created by the strong housing market have been in small businesses.”


The service industry accounts for more than 50% of all self-employed individuals. In addition, half of the 10 million Canadians who work in the service industry are employed by small businesses.

Canadian Small Business: A Growing Force, is available on the CIBC World Markets website at http://research.cibcwm.com/res/Eco/EcoCASBE.html.