Who are Black business owners in Canada?

In 2018, Canada was home to about 66,880 Black business owners. For the first time in Canada, administrative data are being used to determine the intersection between the racial profile (White people, Black people or other racialized groups) and other socioeconomic characteristics of business owners.

These new data provide an opportunity for a more granular analysis of trends in business ownership by racial profile.

More than two-thirds (70.4%) of Black business owners are men, and 29.6% are women.

Regardless of their race, men made up the largest proportion of business owners in 2021, although the gap between men and women was proportionally larger among the Black population. Among female business owners, 1.7% were Black, while in the general population of women aged 15 years and older, 3.1% (2016) and 3.8% (2021) were Black.

More than half of Black business owners in Canada are immigrants

Data from the 2021 Census of Population show that 70.9% of racialized individuals aged 15 years and older in Canada are immigrants; the proportion is 62.7% among the Black population. These data are consistent with the distribution of business owners by race and immigrant status.

In 2021, immigrants represented 64.8% of Black male business owners and accounted for more than half of Black female business owners. Most immigrant business owners have been in Canada for more than five years.

The top five reported countries of origin of Black immigrant business owners were Nigeria (14.2%), Jamaica (12.1%), Ethiopia (10.5%), Haiti (10.2%) and Somalia (4.7%); these countries represent more than half of these owners.

A younger population of owners

For both men and women, Black business owners and those from other racialized groups were on average 47 years of age—6 years younger than their White counterparts (53 years) in 2021.

Overall, the Black population is younger than the general population in Canada. Among Black people, 80.6% of men and 78.7% of women are younger than 50 years, while the proportion in the total population is 63.4% and 61.3% for men and women, respectively.

Types of Black-owned businesses in Canada

Black-owned businesses represented 2.9% of unincorporated businesses (i.e., those commonly referred to as self-employed workers) and 1.6% of incorporated businesses in 2021. Regardless of the type of business, those owned by Black people were on average smaller than those owned by White people or other racialized individuals.

With lower return on assets than their White (10.6%) and other racialized (9.3%) counterparts, Black-owned businesses (5.2%) had weaker capacity to use their assets to generate gains.

In addition, the average profit margin for Black-owned businesses (8.5%) was lower than the average for businesses owned by other racialized (10.1%) or White (14.9%) entrepreneurs, meaning the latter two were better positioned to cope with rising costs or competition.