Ahmed Sherif
Research expert covering IT services and gaming hardware
Canadian ICT industry - Statistics & Facts
Information and communication technology (ICT) refers to the industry of software, hardware, services, and telecommunications that facilitate the access, storage, and transfer of data between users and systems. Although the global ICT industry slightly dropped in 2020 due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, ICT spending picked up quickly afterwards, with spending projected to exceed 5.8 trillion U.S. dollars in 2023.
Notably, while Canada represents a relatively small portion of this global market, the country itself is home to a vibrant and diverse ICT sector that has grown to become one of the major national drivers of innovation and economic growth.
ICT sector in Canada
In 2021, Canada’s ICT sector generated revenues worth 242 billion Canadian dollars, registering an increase of five percent compared to the revenues recorded in 2020. Moreover, in 2021, the ICT sector’s contribution to Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP) exceeded for the first time 100 billion Canadian dollars, with the software and computer services segment accounting for nearly 52 percent of the ICT sector’s contribution to the country's GDP. Additionally, software and computer services were the most valuable ICT segment, with revenues of over 106 billion Canadian dollars, followed by communication services with 67 billion Canadian dollars in revenue. Between 2019 and 2020, Canada’s ICT spending grew by 2.4 percent, while the overall economy experienced a decline of 5.2 percent.ICT sector employment
The ICT sector is also a major provider of employment in Canada, recording a total number of 717.6 thousand employees in 2021. The employment is mainly concentrated in the professional, scientific, and technical services industry – which accounted for almost 40 percent of jobs in 2020. It comes as no surprise that the highest average annual earnings were reported in the software and computer services sector, exceeding 96 thousand Canadian dollars. Notably, the number of women working in Canada’s ICT sector is continuously rising, amounting to almost 500 thousand in the second quarter of 2021. However, wage gaps between men and women continue to be a problem, with women being offered 3.3 percent less than men for developer operation jobs.
