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 There are approximately 9,000 co-operatives in Canada, providing products and services to 17 million members.- Co-operatives exist in virtually every sector of the economy, from agriculture, retail and financial services to housing, child care, funeral services and renewable energy.
- Co-operatives have $275 billion in assets, owned by the members and the communities they serve.
- Co-operatives employ 150,000 people and are led by 100,000 volunteer directors and committee members
- Canada has the highest per-capita credit union membership in the world: 33 per cent of Canadians are a member of at least one credit union.
- There are at least 2,000 communities with at least one credit union or caisse populaire and more than 1,100 communities in which a financial co-operative is the only financial services provider.
- The survival rate of co-ops is higher than that of traditional businesses. A 2008 study in Quebec found that 62 per cent of new co-ops are still operating after five years, compared with 35 per cent for other new businesses. After 10 years, the figures are 44 per cent and 20 per cent respectively.
- Co-operatives, credit unions and caisses populaires give millions of dollars back to their communities in the form of sponsorships and donations.
- The co-op sector has deep roots in Canada. In the late 19th century, farmers in Quebec, Ontario and Atlantic Canada developed co-operative creameries and cheese factories to meet the needs of the growing dairy industry. Alphonse Desjardins founded Canada's first caisse populaire in Lévis, Quebec in 1900. And in the first decade of the 20th century, farmers in western Canada organized co-operatives in an effort to market
their products.
- The Co-operative Union of Canada, which became the Canadian Co-operative Association (CCA) in 1987, was the first national organized association for the Canadian co-operative sector. It was founded in Hamilton, Ontario on March 6, 1909.
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