Business Insolvencies in 2023: A Comparative Overview
The year 2023 saw a total of 4,810 businesses file for
insolvency in Canada, which marked the largest annual volume since
we began tracking insolvency data in 2019. This total annual volume
is a 41.4% increase since the previous year. It is also a 30.7%
increase compared with the second-highest annual volume tracked,
which was the total number of business insolvencies in 2019. It
appears that businesses continue to struggle with managing higher
input costs as well as costs to service or refinance accumulated
debts through 2023.
As shown in Figure 1, total business insolvencies rose 34.7%
over Q3 2023 levels, from a total of 1,129 filings to 1,521
filings. Specifically, recently released data from the Office of
the Superintendent of Bankruptcy indicate that business
insolvencies rapidly picked up in Q4 2023. Compared with the Q4
data from previous years, total business insolvencies rose 67.7%
from 2019 levels,
