Key Takeaways
- An average of 2.7 million Canadians were self-employed in the first nine months of 2026 — 12.9% of all employed people.
- Only 39.4% had private health coverage and 33.3% dental, compared with 63.8% of employees with job-based benefits.
- Autonomy is the top reason people work for themselves (36.8%); 27.6% plan to expand, but finding clients is getting harder.
Freedom is the draw. The benefits gap is the price.
An average of 2.7 million Canadians were self-employed in their main job in the first nine months of 2026, Statistics Canada reported Thursday — 12.9% of everyone employed, a share that has not moved since 2024.
The biggest reason is not money. It's control. More than a third of the self-employed — 36.8% — said they do it for autonomy over their hours, their rate of pay or where they work. Another 14.7% do work they are passionate about, and 12.0% work in their field of expertise. Necessity is rare: only 5.8% said they could not find work as an employee.
What the freedom costs
The trade-off shows up in benefits. In July 2026, only 39.4% of self-employed workers had private supplementary health care coverage and 33.3% had dental coverage. Among employees, 63.8% had access to medical or dental benefits through their job.
Finding work is also getting harder. In July, 19.4% of the self-employed disagreed that it was easy to find new clients — up from 13.2% in 2022. Landed immigrants felt it most, at 25.7%, compared with 15.8% of Canadian-born workers.
Most are not quitting. About 27.6% planned to expand their business in the next year, against 8.0% planning to scale down, close or stop — although the expansion share has slipped below the 29.3% to 31.8% range seen from 2022 to 2025. Expansion plans run highest in Alberta (35.1%) and lowest in the Atlantic provinces (22.0%).
The biggest self-employment industries are professional, scientific and technical services (18.0%), construction (13.4%) and health care and social assistance (12.7%). Just under half — 48.9% — are incorporated, and only 24.9% have employees.
StatCan notes the July 2026 survey was collected at a different time of year than earlier rounds, so some comparisons come with a seasonal caution.
The Twikup Take
Self-employment in Canada is mostly a choice, not a fallback — but it is a choice to give up the safety net most employees never think about. If you are pricing a freelance rate against a salary, StatCan just published the number to add for the benefits you will not get: roughly a one-in-three chance you will have dental coverage at all.
Image: Illustrative image.