Canada’s legal cannabis industry contributed nearly $7B to GDP

February 4, 2025 | Staff

Canada’s legal cannabis industry contributed nearly $7.7 billion to Canada’s GDP in 2023, according to the most recent figures from Statistics Canada.

The majority of this was cannabis production, at nearly $6.8 billion, while retail added almost $900 million on top of that.

That number grew in the first four years of legalization but declined somewhat in 2022. In 2022, the legal cannabis market contributed just under $8 billion to Canada’s GDP.

The illicit cannabis market added another nearly $2.7 billion to Canada’s GDP in 2023, with another $892 million from illicit cannabis retailers, both online and brick-and-mortar.

In comparison, legal cannabis’ contribution to Canada’s GDP surpassed that of breweries, wineries, and distilleries. In 2023, breweries contributed just over $3 billion to Canada’s GDP, while wineries and distilleries contributed just over $1 billion. Legal cannabis stores alone contributed nearly as much to the GDP in 2023 as wineries and distilleries combined.

Licensed cannabis production’s contribution to Canada’s GDP surpassed that of gold and silver ore mining, local credit unions, furniture and related product manufacturing, the postal service, gambling industries, potash mining, dairy product manufacturing, coal mining, radio and television broadcasting, electronics and appliance stores, grain and oilseed milling, fishing, hunting and trapping, and ship and boat building, just to name a few.