Airdrie, Alberta
What Airdrie is made of: the communities whose institutions are here, the sectors its 643 businesses sit in, the franchises already on the ground, and the services a newcomer could start.
643 businesses on file · 94 trades · 32 sectors · census population 74,100 · registry population 93,957 · built from geonet.calgary on 2026-10-07
The two disagree: the registry says 93,957 and the 2021 census counted 74,100 for the municipality. The registry figure is often a metropolitan population. Both are shown; neither is corrected into the other.
Visiting rather than moving? The free guidebook for Airdrie → — the free guidebook for this region: why go, what to see, what is open when it rains.
The local economy
What the business base is made of, what it is specialised in against the national pattern, and what that mix implies. This is the part a development office would read first.
Composition, not health. geonet records what trades exist and where; it does not record formation, closure, employment or revenue, so none of those appear here. What makes this economics rather than a directory is the NAICS coding: it lets the local mix be read against the BLS survival curves and against the 323 industry groups this research has screened.
Every industry group on this page links through to its NAICS page, and to the screened market report where this research has one — that is what the trait-to-NAICS coding buys.
What this city is specialised in
Location quotient is this city's share of a trade divided by the same share across 10 CA metro tables. Above 1.25 is the conventional threshold for a local specialisation.
Thin against the national pattern
Common trades that are under-represented here. For someone deciding what to open, this is the more useful half of the table — though a gap can mean unmet demand or a market that does not work here, and this does not tell you which.
The base against the entry screen
Businesses by the entry signal of the industry group they sit in, from the /markets screen. A large "structure decides" share means most local trades are ones where being better than the incumbent does not by itself win. A trade is matched to the screened record at whatever level the research wrote it — the same code, a broader one, or a narrower one. Where a group holds several screened sub-markets the count is shown, because no single one of them speaks for the whole group.
How to read the survival figure
Each sector's five-year establishment survival rate, weighted by how many of this city's businesses sit in that sector. It is a property of the MIX, not of these businesses — it says what survival this composition would imply at US private-sector rates, because no Canadian equivalent series exists.
Weighted over 95.2% of the coded base — public administration carries no curve. Source: Business Employment Dynamics — Table 7, Survival of private sector establishments by opening year, US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
And what it does not measure
A "mixed" trait is one that genuinely spans codes — "computers" covers systems design, repair and supply. The clear share is how much of this reading rests on unambiguous coding. Business density also reflects how completely the directory covers a place, not only how many businesses are in it — so it compares poorly between a city the register knows well and one it does not.
Who lives here, and who the city is for
The census: the only figures on this page that count people rather than businesses, and the three cohort readings they make possible.
The register says what trades exist. The census says who lives here — and it is the only thing on this page that counts people. Figures are Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population for Airdrie, City (CY), the municipality proper, and every comparison is against the population-weighted average of all 5,161 census subdivisions in Canada.
Who the city is for
Three readings, each built from real numbers against real benchmarks. This is not an index. Every signal is shown with its own value, its benchmark and which way it points, and the band simply counts how many point the same way — so a reader who disagrees with one signal can drop it and still use the rest.
Seniors
thinIs this a place to grow old, and is the care here?
| Residents 65 and over | 9.2% | ▼19% |
| Residents 85 and overthe group that needs care rather than the group that is merely retired | 0.6% | ▼2.3% |
| Median age | 35.6 years | ▼42.1 years |
| Low income among 65+against a 15% reference, not a national figure | 7.8% | ▲15% |
| Medical clinics per 1,000 residentsfrom the business register | 0.04 | – |
| Pharmacies per 1,000 residentsfrom the business register | 0.12 | – |
| Nursing and elderly care operatorscounted in the register, which lists few of them | 0 | – |
| Median rent | 1500 $/mo | ▼1175 $/mo |
A high share of over-65s says other people made this choice; it does not by itself say the care exists. The register lists clinics and pharmacies but has no category for a hospital at all, so the one thing a family would most want — distance to an emergency department — is still missing.
Students and young adults
thinIs there a reason to be here between 19 and 25, and can they afford it?
| Residents 20 to 24 | 4.6% | ▼6% |
| Residents 15 to 19the cohort arriving next | 6.1% | –6% |
| Renter householdsa rental market is what makes a place possible to move to | 20.7% | ▼33.2% |
| Median rent | 1500 $/mo | ▼1175 $/mo |
| Unemployment rateMay 2021, mid-pandemic — high everywhere in this census | 11.1% | –10.4% |
| Degree holders in the adult populationagainst a 32% reference | 19.9% | ▼32% |
| Drinking places and recreationfrom the register | 4 | – |
Post-secondary institutions in the city are listed further down this page; where there are none, a high 20-to-24 share usually means work rather than study.
Newcomers and other-language speakers
thinIs there already a community here, and has anyone built anything for it?
| Immigrants in the population | 17% | ▼23.2% |
| Arrived 2016 to 2021a recent arrival means the route here is current, not historical | 3.5% | –3.7% |
| Speak a non-official language at home | 6.6% | ▼12.7% |
| Languages spoken at home above the reporting floor | 9 | – |
| Community institutions in the register | 0 | – |
| Non-permanent residentsstudents and work-permit holders | 0.5% | ▼3.7% |
The census counts speakers; the business register shows whether a community has built anything — a church, a society, a credit union, a grocer. Both columns appear in the language table below, and the interesting rows are the ones where they disagree.
What is spoken at home, and whether anyone built for it
Where the census and the business register disagree. A language spoken by hundreds with no institution behind it is a gap in local provision — or a gap in the register. An institution with no matching language usually means an older community that has shifted to English at home.
| Spoken most often at home | Speakers | Share | Community in the register | Institutions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Punjabi (Panjabi) | 950 | 1.3% | South Asian | 0 |
| Tagalog (Pilipino, Filipino) | 805 | 1.1% | Filipino | 0 |
| Spanish | 760 | 1% | Spanish-speaking | 0 |
| Urdu | 265 | 0.4% | South Asian | 0 |
| Russian | 140 | 0.2% | Russian | 0 |
| Korean | 140 | 0.2% | Korean | 0 |
| Arabic | 125 | 0.2% | Arabic-speaking | 0 |
| Hindi | 120 | 0.2% | South Asian | 0 |
| Dari | 120 | 0.2% | Afghan | 0 |
Spoken, but nothing built
Punjabi (Panjabi) 950 · Tagalog (Pilipino, Filipino) 805 · Spanish 760
Hundreds of speakers with no institution carrying the name. For someone opening a business, this is the most actionable line on the page — though it may equally be a gap in the register.
The rest of the profile
| Characteristic | Here | Canada |
|---|---|---|
| Residents 65 and over | 9.2% | 19% |
| Residents 85 and over | 0.6% | 2.3% |
| Residents 20 to 24 | 4.6% | 6% |
| Arrived 2016 to 2021 | 3.5% | 3.7% |
| Non-permanent residents | 0.5% | — |
| Speak a non-official language at home | 6.6% | 12.7% |
| Renter households | 20.7% | 33.2% |
| Spending 30% or more on shelter | 20.7% | 20.6% |
| Participation rate | 74.4% | 63.7% |
| Unemployment rate | 11.1% | 10.4% |
| Median household income, 2020 | 110000 $ | — |
| Median after-tax household income, 2020 | 94000 $ | — |
| Prevalence of low income (LIM-AT) | 6% | — |
| Bachelor degree or higher | 19.9% | — |
The one thing to keep in mind
Census day was 11 May 2021, so income is for 2020 and the labour figures were taken during the pandemic — Toronto's 13.9% unemployment rate is a May 2021 reading, not a current one. Census 2021 count for the census subdivision, which is the municipality proper. It will differ from the figure in wander.regions, which is sometimes a metropolitan population.
Source: Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population — 98-401-X2021005 — Canada, provinces, territories, census divisions and census subdivisions, Statistics Canada, under the Open Government Licence – Canada. National comparison: Population-weighted across all 5,161 census subdivisions in the 2021 Census Profile. Median rent and median age are weighted means of local medians, which is an approximation, not a national median.
The communities the register shows
A community appears in the business register before it appears in prose — a national church, a society, a credit union, a newspaper. Those are counted as institutions, and they are what suggests residents. A restaurant serving a cuisine is counted separately as trade, because every city has those and they say nothing about who lives nearby. The ranking is by institutions.
| Community | Institutions | Worship | Trade | Where it shows |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vietnamese | — | — | 1 | |
| Italian | — | — | 1 | |
| Swedish | — | — | 1 | |
| Dutch | — | — | 1 |
What the city is made of
Every business on file, grouped by the sector it trades in. This is the economic-development view: where the 643 businesses actually are, and the specific trades inside each sector.
| Sector | Businesses | Share | What is in it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Construction | 49 | 7.6% | plumbing (11) · general contractor (10) · concrete (6) · home builder (6) · electrician (5) · painting (3) · roofing (2) · carpet (2) |
| Business | 49 | 7.6% | government (21) · accounting (10) · association (8) · consulting (6) · auction (2) |
| Living | 40 | 6.2% | place of worship (15) · furniture (8) · veterinary (4) · appliances (4) · daycare (3) · real estate (2) · cleaning (2) · fire safety (1) |
| Automotive | 40 | 6.2% | autos (23) · auto repair (7) · scooter (1) · tires (1) · auto parts (1) |
| Dining | 40 | 6.2% | restaurant (27) · pizza (8) · diner (3) · pubs (2) |
| Health | 29 | 4.5% | chiro (7) · pharmacy (6) · optical (3) · medical clinic (3) · physician (2) · fitness club (1) |
| Beauty | 29 | 4.5% | hair stylist (20) · dentist (7) · barber (2) |
| Retail | 24 | 3.7% | gifts (8) · flowers (3) · convenience (3) · photography (2) · jeweler (2) · office equipment (1) · antiques (1) · garden (1) |
| Logistics | 22 | 3.4% | truck transportation (10) · storage (5) · railroad (1) · packaging (1) |
| Energy | 22 | 3.4% | petroleum (12) · fuel (9) · pipelines (1) |
| Education | 22 | 3.4% | school (20) · library (1) |
| Living & Home | 20 | 3.1% | scooter (1) · greenhouse (1) |
| Finance | 19 | 3% | insurance (8) · bank (3) · real estate (1) · credit union (1) |
| Agribusiness | 13 | 2% | landscaping (8) · livestock (5) |
| Retail Goods | 12 | 1.9% | |
| Realty | 11 | 1.7% | real estate (11) |
| Travel | 9 | 1.4% | motel (4) · travel agent (2) · hotel (1) · bnb (1) |
| Food | 9 | 1.4% | grocer (4) · baker (2) · ice cream (2) · seafood (1) |
| Construction & Realty | 8 | 1.2% | |
| Media | 7 | 1.1% | advertising (4) · signs (3) |
The franchises already here
Brands from a register of 2,024 franchise systems, matched into this city by name. A high count is a signal in both directions: the territory works, and it may be taken.
13 of these brands are a single common word — Metro, Avenue, Budget — so their counts include businesses that merely share the word. They are marked rather than dropped.
| Brand | Category | Here | Worldwide |
|---|---|---|---|
| U-Haul | car | 3 | 13,700 |
| Great Plains | retail | 2 | 6 |
| Shell Canada | fuel | 2 | 2,100 |
| 2-4-1 Pizza | pizza | 1 | 100 |
| Athletes World | retail | 1 | — |
| Best Western | businesshotel | 1 | 4,200 |
| Blockbuster Video | video | 1 | 5,900 |
| Boston Pizza | pizza | 1 | 250 |
| Buck or Two | retail | 1 | 139 |
| Canadian Tire | retail | 1 | 455 |
| CD Plus | retail | 1 | 218 |
| Co-operators | insurance | 1 | — |
| Color Your World | retail | 1 | 98 |
| Curves For Women | fitness | 1 | 10,000 |
| Dairy Queen | fastfood | 1 | 5,900 |
| Enterprise Rent A Car | car | 1 | 5,400 |
| Extreme Pita | deli | 1 | 174 |
| Great Clips | hair | 1 | 2,600 |
| NAPA Auto Parts | auto | 1 | 18,000 |
| Padgett Business Services | tax | 1 | 400 |
| Petro Canada | fuel | 1 | 1,512 |
| Pita Pit | deli | 1 | 220 |
| Pizza 73 | pizza | 1 | 48 |
| Pizza Hut | pizza | 1 | 10,000 |
| Rent-A-Wreck | car | 1 | — |
| Royal Bank | bank | 1 | — |
| Royal Canadian Legion | club | 1 | 160 |
| Salvation Army | retail | 1 | — |
| Stop & Shop | supermarket | 1 | 360 |
| Super 8 | economyhotel | 1 | — |
| Sylvan Learning | school | 1 | 710 |
| Taco Time | fastfood | 1 | 300 |
| Tim Hortons | coffee | 1 | 2,890 |
| Limited name only | retail | 32 | — |
| Safeway name only | supermarket | 3 | 1,767 |
| Coach name only | luggage | 1 | — |
| Fabricland name only | retail | 1 | 170 |
| Fabutan name only | health | 1 | 151 |
| Greyhound name only | travel | 1 | — |
| Hallmark name only | greetingcards | 1 | 5,600 |
| Jeep name only | suv | 1 | — |
| Manor name only | retail | 1 | — |
| Roxy name only | retail | 1 | — |
| SAAN name only | retail | 1 | 140 |
| ScotiaBank name only | bank | 1 | — |
| Sears name only | inc | 1 | 2,300 |
Real estate as a local trade
Four unrelated jobs share the name: selling existing homes, owning and letting them, managing them for someone else, and building new ones. For anyone weighing a move or a licence these are the counts — and the ownership question goes to /property, which answers it building by building.
Real estate is a local job market in its own right, and four unrelated trades get the same name. Counts are businesses filed under each trade in the register, which lists a brokerage once however many agents work there — so this measures firms, not licensees.
Selling homes
5312Offices of agents and brokers — the resale market, and the biggest single trade in most Canadian cities.
Named in the register
- Alberta Independent Realty Limited — 133 1 Street Northwest
- Boardwalk Realty — 400 Towerlane Dr
- Boardwalk Realty Limited — 400 Towerlane Drive
- Bri Mor Property Management Limited — 960 Yankee Valley Road Southeast 100
- Castlewood Agencies — 108 Edmonton Trail NE
- Cir Realtors — 120 2 Ave NW
- Instaloans Financial Solution — 124 1 Ave NE
- Magna View Properties — Box 3836
- Manor Real Estate Limited — 310 Meadow Brook Bay
- RE MAX Rocky View Real Estate — 540 2 Avenue Northeast
- Red Rose Real Estate — 128 Edmonton Trail SE
- Royal Le Page Real Estate Service — 505 Main St
- Sutton Group First Realty — 521 2 Ave SE
- Westpointe — 103 Fairways Drive Northwest 31
Building new homes
2361Residential builders and the general contractors who work for them.
Named in the register
- Altacasa Construction — 415 East Lake Rd NE
- City Siding Eavestrough — 924 Woodside Lane
- Daytona Homes — 11 Big Springs Rise
- Emerald New Homes — 620 1 Ave NW
- Gold Bond Homes — 28 Waterstone Cres
- Jeaurond Enterprises — 115 Woodside Road
- Mc Kee Developments — 620 1 Ave NW
- Mc Kee Homes — 620 1 Ave NW
- Oscar Caron Construction — 415 East Lake Rd NE
- Patricia Enterprises — 69 East Lake Cres
- Royal Oak Homes — RR 1 STN Main
- Schickendanz Brothers — 12 Woodside Rise
- Tri T Homes — PO Box 3305 STN Main
- Waterstone Developments — 620 1 Ave NW
Who actually owns it
The full property record →From the /property research for this city, which asks a different question: not who trades in property here, but who owns it. An owner is named there only where a document says so. Owner $10 per title via SPIN2; no open roll and no starts data for this commuter city.
Landowners
- Melcor Developments Ltd. — 433 acres of residential raw land, all residential; 136,494 sq ft of retail at 100% occupancy
- Genesis Land Development Corp. — Bayside, Bayview and Canals Landing — three communities over roughly 30 years
- Canada Post — 0.91 ha at 2945 Kingsview Boulevard SE — the only Crown-owned federal land in the city
- 1,054 distinct contractors on the City's permit layer — 267 residential dwelling units and $136,087,069 of stated construction value across 6,000 permits, 2012 to July 2026
Homebuilders
- Mattamy (Airdrie) Limited — 35 units / 156 permits / $13,779,798
- McKee Homes Ltd — 38 units / 109 permits / $10,460,602
- Vesta Properties (Williamstown) Ltd — 24 units / 106 permits / $7,383,110
- Excel Homes Limited Partnership — 23 units / 32 permits / $6,131,319
- Genesis Builders Group Inc — 8 units / 34 permits / $2,018,274
- Shane Homes Limited, Trico Homes Inc, Sterling Homes (Calgary), Sabal Homes LP, Douglas Homes Ltd, Sovereign Custom Homes Ltd — 16, 15, 13, 13, 9 and 16 units respectively in the City's permit layer
Commercial landlords
- Melcor Developments Ltd. — 136,494 sq ft retail GLA, 100% leased, plus 433 acres of land
- Genesis Land Development Corp. — Three named Airdrie communities; CMA-wide, 108 lots sold H1 2026
- Government of Canada (all custodians) — 4 parcels, 0.9 ha, 4,344 m2 of floor area — 0.91 ha Crown-owned
7 marquee buildings examined, 4 with an owner established.
On "how many doors"
How many doors a landlord holds is not in any of this. The register files an apartment building under the building, not its owner, and carries no unit count; there is no open dataset of Canadian landlords by portfolio. Where this research has established ownership it is in the /property record for the city, building by building, which is a different and much slower exercise.
Work where you go to them
The Ultimate 411 half of local: everything where the customer does not have to come to you.
A shop needs the customer to walk in. These 157 services do the opposite — the mobile mechanic, the mobile groomer, the bookkeeper, the junk haul — and they are the ones a person can start without a lease. 0 of them already match a trait filed in this city's register.
The 157 Service=1 rows in search.local: work where the provider travels to the customer. "present" counts businesses already filed under that exact trait name; a blank is a coverage gap, not proof of absence, because the two vocabularies were built separately.
home services
events
pets
luxury
healthcare
sporting goods
sports
business
outdoors
construction
travel
tools
Schools and colleges
wander.schools is a post-secondary table — universities and colleges. K-12 public and private schools are not in it, and only 7 of its 1,686 rows carry coordinates, so these are listed and not mapped.
In the business register
Where schooling shows up as a business rather than an institution — which is where K-12, tutoring and childcare appear.
Health and care
What a person moving a parent here would ask first. The register files clinics and pharmacies; it has no category for a hospital at all, so hospitals are matched by name and the limit is stated rather than hidden.
Matched on the name "hospital"
- Airdrie Animal Health Centre — 120 2 Avenue Northeast 111
geonet carries no 'hospital' trait, so these are matched on the business name. A distance-to-hospital figure needs a source that states hospital locations.
Mayor & politics
Who holds office here and who is asking to, from the official lists on /politics: the council, the riding’s Member of Parliament and the provincial member. Each name opens its row there.
Realtors in Airdrie — the brokerages and licensed agents to call →
What this record cannot tell you
Named in full, because the gaps are the part most likely to be misread as an answer.
- Census figures are 2021, taken on 11 May 2021: income is for 2020 and the labour figures were measured mid-pandemic, so the unemployment rate on this page is a 2021 reading rather than a current one.
- wander.schools is now readable, but it holds universities and colleges only and 1,679 of its 1,686 rows have no coordinates. K-12 public and private schools need a separate source — in Ontario the Ministry of Education school finder, in British Columbia the provincial school list. wander.citytowns, hotels and territories remain denied to the ru user.
- No 'hospital' trait exists in geonet; distance to a hospital needs an external source such as StatCan's Open Database of Healthcare Facilities.
- 23.0% of businesses here carry no coordinates, so a map or address lookup would miss them. Postal codes reach 89%.
Built from
geonet.calgary— the local business registerwander.regions— city name, population, metrosearch.local— trait vocabulary and the come-to-you servicessearch.cozfranchises— 2,024 franchise brands