State of Women’s Entrepreneurship in Canada 2025 Report: Executive Summary

The Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (WEKH) has released an executive summary of initial findings from its annual State of Women’s Entrepreneurship (SOWE) in Canada report. The research shows women entrepreneurs are benefitting from Canada’s Women Entrepreneurship Strategy and that women entrepreneurs are growing in number. The executive summary shows the proportion of small and medium-sized (SME) businesses majority owned by women steadily increased from 15.6% in 2017 to 16.8% in 2020 and 17.8% in 2023. Additionally, in 2024, on average, 19 percent of all businesses, including SMEs, are majority owned by women in Canada compared to 18.4 percent in 2023. Growth rates are even higher for private sector majority women-owned businesses which were 20.6 percent in 2017 and held steady in 2024 at 20.9 percent.

Tariffs, interest rates and supply chain issues are concerns for women entrepreneurs, but recent data shows that key entrepreneurial indicators have rebounded. Women-owned businesses are less likely to adopt emerging technologies like AI, with an adoption rate of 12.3% compared to 16.5% among men-owned businesses. Nonetheless, businesses with majority women ownership (51.0-99.0%) demonstrate the highest overall innovation rate at 38.0%, significantly outperforming fully women-owned businesses at 24.7% and businesses with no women ownership at 25.6%.

Women’s entrepreneurship in Canada is critical to our economic development, innovation and sustainability. Canada’s women entrepreneurship strategy (WES) is a whole of government approach, unique in the world, which focuses on harnessing the potential of women entrepreneurship and developing evidence-based strategies to address the barriers and enable success. While there is more to be done, this year’s State of Women’s Entrepreneurship in Canada executive summary suggests that despite many challenges women entrepreneurs are resilient and continuing to gain ground. With the uncertainty ahead, it remains critical to continue to ensure Canada’s entrepreneurship, innovation and economic development strategies include the perspectives of diverse women entrepreneurs.

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