New research counts 273,000 jobs and a pharmacy in nearly every community
Canada's pharmacy sector contributes $22.9bn to national GDP each year and supports more than 273,000 jobs, according to a new report from Signal49 Research.
The report, titled The Economic Footprint of Canada's Pharmacy Sector: Fuelling Health and Local Economies, draws on 2024 economic data.
It finds the sector generates $14bn in labour income annually and $6.3bn in tax revenues across federal, provincial and municipal governments.
Canada counts 12,558 pharmacy locations across every province and territory, the report says, with nearly two-thirds operating as independently owned or banner-affiliated community pharmacies.
The sector's economic effects reach beyond the pharmacies themselves.
As per the research, every $1 of direct pharmacy output generates an additional $0.20 in activity elsewhere in the economy, and each pharmacy job supports roughly 0.4 additional jobs in other sectors.
Ontario and Quebec account for the largest shares of that activity.
The report attributes $8.4bn in GDP and 96,000 jobs to Ontario, and $6.1bn in GDP and 79,000 jobs to Quebec.
Rural communities rely heavily on the sector, according to the report, which found that rural pharmacies employ more than one in every 100 rural residents and links their presence to narrowing healthcare access gaps in underserved areas.
Sandra Hanna, chief executive of the Neighbourhood Pharmacy Association of Canada, said the findings capture the sector's dual role.
Canadians trust their local pharmacy for care, she said, but it also serves as "critical economic infrastructure," supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs and generating billions in government revenues.
Eddy Nason, director of health at Signal49 Research, pointed to the timing of the findings.
“It's a business, a significant economic driver, and a frontline healthcare service operating at a time of major upheaval in primary care,” he said.
