1. Short Product Review: Canadian Business Counts
DLI Ontario Region Training
December 2016
Sandra Keys

2. Formerly known as… Canadian Business Patterns
Prior to the June 2015 release

3. What it is
“Provides counts of active businesses by industry classification and employment-size categories
“The counts are compiled from the Business Register, Statistics Canada's central listing of Canadian businesses. They are based on the statistical concept of "location"—that is, each operating location is separately counted, including cases where one business comprises multiple locations. For example, a retail business with 10 stores represents 10 businesses in the Canadian business counts
“Canadian business counts are based on the same criteria that were used to calculate Canadian business patterns

4. Caveat #1
“Changes to the Business Register's methodology or business industrial classification strategies can bring about increases or decreases in the number of active businesses reported in the Canadian business counts. As a result, the data do not represent changes in the business population over time. Statistics Canada recommends users not to use the data as a time series. (bolding mine)

5. Caveat #2
“The employment size ranges provided should not be used to calculate total number of employees

6. Dates of Coverage CANSIM: December 2011 to present
But watch for the name change (June 2015) if searching CANSIM!
Through DLI (WDS): 1988 – current
, data were released annually
Note for general public (in The Daily):
“Data prior to December 2011 are also available upon request on a cost-recovery basis

7. Frequency of Product
Semi-annual (June and December)

8. Geographic Coverage CANSIM Through DLI (WDS)
Canada & Provinces/Territories
Through DLI (WDS)
CMA/CA; CD (and Canada & Provinces/Territories)
Note for general public (in The Daily):
“Custom data products for other geographic levels can be ordered on a cost-recovery basis

9. Other information
NAICS Codes
currently 2012 version
6-digit level

10. StatCan Division
Statistical Registers and Geography Division

11. How to Access CANSIM DLI (WDS) <odesi>
Table numbers vary (each release has its own table number)
DLI (WDS)
B2020 format
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