AI Analysis: Canadian Co-operatives, selected financial data by Province and Industry

Executive Summary

Canadian co-operatives demonstrated strong financial growth from 2016 to 2023, with total revenue rising 48% from $45.1 billion to $66.6 billion while the number of co-operatives remained relatively stable at roughly 5,500–5,800 organizations nationwide. The sector is heavily concentrated, with a small number of large co-operatives driving outsized averages — median revenues sit around $60–65 million versus billion-dollar means — and a notable $525.8 billion expenditure spike in 2021 warrants further investigation as a potential data anomaly. Finance, agriculture, and retail trade industries dominate co-operative revenue, with strong regional variation across Canada's provinces and territories.

Key Findings

• Total Canadian co-operative revenue grew 48% over the study period, from $45.1 billion in 2016 to $66.6 billion in 2023, with expenditures closely tracking this growth from $43.2 billion to $63.8 billion.
• A major data anomaly was detected in 2021, where Canada-wide co-operative expenditures spiked to $525.8 billion — far exceeding all other years — with Saskatchewan ($167.2B and $165.2B) and Quebec ($153B) also recording extreme values that year.
• The number of co-operatives remained largely stable throughout the period, ranging between 5,531 and 5,817, suggesting sector consolidation rather than expansion in the number of organizations.
• Revenue and Sales are perfectly correlated (r = 1.000), indicating that co-operative revenue is almost entirely derived from sales activity across all industries and years.
• Financial distributions are heavily right-skewed: the median expenditure is just $65.6 million versus a mean of $3.8 billion, confirming that a small number of very large co-operatives dominate the sector's financial footprint.
• 851 statistical outliers were identified using a 3x IQR threshold, with the 'All industries' national aggregate accounting for 355 of these records and the Canada-level geography alone contributing 206 outlier data points.
• Employment across co-operatives ranges from 0 to over 104,000 workers with a median of 523, reflecting the coexistence of small community-based co-ops and large national organizations within the same sector.