Cranbrook, BC
What Cranbrook is made of: the communities whose institutions are here, the sectors its 1,286 businesses sit in, the franchises already on the ground, and the services a newcomer could start.
1,286 businesses on file · 112 trades · 32 sectors · census population 20,495 · registry population 22,733 · built from geonet.kelowna on 2026-10-07
The two disagree: the registry says 22,733 and the 2021 census counted 20,495 for the municipality. The registry figure is often a metropolitan population. Both are shown; neither is corrected into the other.
Home of Steve Yzerman, NHL ice hockey player
Visiting rather than moving? The free guidebook for Cranbrook → — 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 93.5% 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 Cranbrook, 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
strongIs this a place to grow old, and is the care here?
| Residents 65 and over | 23.8% | ▲19% |
| Residents 85 and overthe group that needs care rather than the group that is merely retired | 3.1% | ▲2.3% |
| Median age | 45.2 years | –42.1 years |
| Low income among 65+against a 15% reference, not a national figure | 13.1% | ▲15% |
| Medical clinics per 1,000 residentsfrom the business register | 0.34 | – |
| Pharmacies per 1,000 residentsfrom the business register | 0.44 | – |
| Nursing and elderly care operatorscounted in the register, which lists few of them | 0 | – |
| Median rent | 980 $/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
moderateIs there a reason to be here between 19 and 25, and can they afford it?
| Residents 20 to 24 | 5.8% | –6% |
| Residents 15 to 19the cohort arriving next | 5.2% | ▼6% |
| Renter householdsa rental market is what makes a place possible to move to | 26.4% | ▼33.2% |
| Median rent | 980 $/mo | ▲1175 $/mo |
| Unemployment rateMay 2021, mid-pandemic — high everywhere in this census | 7.4% | ▲10.4% |
| Degree holders in the adult populationagainst a 32% reference | 14.5% | ▼32% |
| Drinking places and recreationfrom the register | 13 | – |
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 | 8.7% | ▼23.2% |
| Arrived 2016 to 2021a recent arrival means the route here is current, not historical | 1.5% | ▼3.7% |
| Speak a non-official language at home | 2.2% | ▼12.7% |
| Languages spoken at home above the reporting floor | 1 | – |
| Community institutions in the register | 1 | – |
| Non-permanent residentsstudents and work-permit holders | 1.9% | ▼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) | 120 | 0.6% | South Asian | 0 |
The rest of the profile
| Characteristic | Here | Canada |
|---|---|---|
| Residents 65 and over | 23.8% | 19% |
| Residents 85 and over | 3.1% | 2.3% |
| Residents 20 to 24 | 5.8% | 6% |
| Arrived 2016 to 2021 | 1.5% | 3.7% |
| Non-permanent residents | 1.9% | — |
| Speak a non-official language at home | 2.2% | 12.7% |
| Renter households | 26.4% | 33.2% |
| Spending 30% or more on shelter | 15.2% | 20.6% |
| Participation rate | 61.7% | 63.7% |
| Unemployment rate | 7.4% | 10.4% |
| Median household income, 2020 | 80000 $ | — |
| Median after-tax household income, 2020 | 72500 $ | — |
| Prevalence of low income (LIM-AT) | 9.1% | — |
| Bachelor degree or higher | 14.5% | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indigenous | 1 | — | 1 |
Kootenay Region Metis Association |
| German | — | — | 2 | |
| Chinese | — | — | 1 | |
| Italian | — | — | 1 | |
| Spanish-speaking | — | — | 1 | |
| Swiss | — | — | 1 | |
| Irish | — | — | 1 |
Where the communities are
Streets, not neighbourhood names. The data knows that Greek institutions sit on one street and Greek restaurants on another; it does not know the word "Greektown", so it does not use it.
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 1,286 businesses actually are, and the specific trades inside each sector.
| Sector | Businesses | Share | What is in it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business | 112 | 8.7% | government (51) · association (20) · consulting (19) · accounting (14) · vending (2) · auction (2) |
| Construction | 93 | 7.2% | plumbing (14) · electrician (12) · general contractor (11) · excavating (9) · carpet (8) · tiny home (8) · painting (8) · machinery (5) |
| Living | 84 | 6.5% | place of worship (22) · daycare (14) · furniture (9) · cleaning (9) · apartment (9) · janitor (7) · veterinary (4) · appliances (3) |
| Automotive | 66 | 5.1% | autos (30) · auto repair (17) · auto parts (3) · tires (2) · motorcycle (1) |
| Dining | 56 | 4.4% | restaurant (43) · pizza (5) · pubs (4) · steakhouse (3) · diner (1) |
| Health | 52 | 4% | physician (16) · medical clinic (7) · pharmacy (5) · health foods (5) · chiro (4) · optical (4) · fitness club (1) |
| Retail | 50 | 3.9% | convenience (14) · gifts (9) · department store (7) · jeweler (5) · photography (5) · flowers (4) · antiques (2) · discount store (1) |
| Finance | 43 | 3.3% | insurance (14) · bank (13) · real estate (4) · loans (1) |
| Beauty | 39 | 3% | hair stylist (26) · dentist (8) · barber (4) |
| Living & Home | 39 | 3% | greenhouse (2) |
| Travel | 33 | 2.6% | motel (14) · hotel (9) · bnb (4) · travel agent (2) · pubs (1) |
| Education | 32 | 2.5% | school (30) · library (1) · writing (1) |
| Retail Goods | 26 | 2% | |
| Construction & Realty | 26 | 2% | |
| Logistics | 24 | 1.9% | truck transportation (12) · storage (3) · railroad (1) |
| Manufacturing | 21 | 1.6% | industrial supplier (9) · fabrication (8) · ice (1) · machinery (1) · beverage (1) · greenhouse (1) |
| Agribusiness | 21 | 1.6% | landscaping (14) · forestry (2) · livestock (2) · dairy (2) · fertilizer (1) |
| Entertainment | 16 | 1.2% | video (3) · museum (3) · video producer (2) · music instruments (2) · amusement (1) · games (1) |
| Food | 15 | 1.2% | baker (12) · grocer (2) · seafood (1) |
| Fashion | 14 | 1.1% | clothing (14) |
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.
20 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7-Eleven | convenience | 2 | 30,000 |
| Wal-Mart | retail | 2 | 6,500 |
| Best Western | businesshotel | 1 | 4,200 |
| Big O Tires | auto | 1 | 540 |
| Blockbuster Video | video | 1 | 5,900 |
| Boston Pizza | pizza | 1 | 250 |
| Buck or Two | retail | 1 | 139 |
| Budget Rent A Car | car | 1 | 1,900 |
| Buns Master Bakery | coffee | 1 | 29 |
| Burger King | fastfood | 1 | 11,000 |
| Canadian Tire | retail | 1 | 455 |
| Comfort Inn | familyhotel | 1 | — |
| Cotton Ginny | retail | 1 | — |
| Crystal Glass | auto | 1 | — |
| Curves For Women | fitness | 1 | 10,000 |
| Dairy Queen | fastfood | 1 | 5,900 |
| Hertz Rent A Car | car | 1 | 7,000 |
| IKON Office Solutions | retail | 1 | 400 |
| Kal Tire | auto | 1 | 200 |
| Lawn Doctor | specialty | 1 | 475 |
| Liquidation World | retail | 1 | 100 |
| Minute Muffler | auto | 1 | — |
| NAPA Auto Parts | auto | 1 | 18,000 |
| NOVUS Windshield | auto | 1 | 400 |
| OK Tire | auto | 1 | 260 |
| Payless Shoesource | shoestore | 1 | 5,000 |
| Peoples Jewellers | retail | 1 | — |
| Pizza Hut | pizza | 1 | 10,000 |
| Rent-A-Wreck | car | 1 | — |
| Rogers Video | video | 1 | 300 |
| Royal Bank | bank | 1 | — |
| Royal Canadian Legion | club | 1 | 160 |
| Salvation Army | retail | 1 | — |
| Save On Foods | supermarket | 1 | 69 |
| Service Experts | specialty | 1 | — |
| Shell Canada | fuel | 1 | 2,100 |
| Shoppers Drug Mart | pharmacy | 1 | 927 |
| Taco Time | fastfood | 1 | 300 |
| Tim Hortons | coffee | 1 | 2,890 |
| U-Haul | car | 1 | 13,700 |
| Welcome Wagon | club | 1 | — |
| Manor name only | retail | 4 | — |
| Champion name only | supermarket | 3 | 1,000 |
| CIBC name only | bank | 3 | — |
| Limited name only | retail | 3 | — |
| Safeway name only | supermarket | 3 | 1,767 |
| Greyhound name only | travel | 2 | — |
| Sears name only | inc | 2 | 2,300 |
| Toyota name only | car | 2 | — |
| Ardene name only | retail | 1 | — |
| Bootlegger name only | retail | 1 | — |
| Coach name only | luggage | 1 | — |
| Fabricland name only | retail | 1 | 170 |
| Honda name only | car | 1 | — |
| Husky name only | fuel | 1 | — |
| Midas name only | auto | 1 | 1,800 |
| Nissan name only | auto | 1 | — |
| Reitmans name only | retail | 1 | 343 |
| ScotiaBank name only | bank | 1 | — |
| Volkswagen name only | — | 1 | — |
| Zellers name only | retail | 1 | — |
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
- Blue Sky Realty — 1111 Cranbrook St N
- Century 21 Cranbrook Agencies Real Estate 2000 — 911 Baker St
- Cmc Automated Mortgage — 25 10th Ave S
- Colbrook Properties Dev — 25 10th Ave S
- CRANBROOK PROPERTY MANAGEMENT LTD — 21 C 10 Avenue South
- E K APPRAISALS — 801 B Baker Street 4
- EAST KOOTENAY REALTY INSURANCE — 27 C 10 Avenue South
- East Kootney Realty — 27 10th Ave S
- EKMAN LAND SURVEYING LTD — 217 B Industrial F
- Highland Property Management — 111 Kootenay St N
- Ken Yeager Appraisals — 125 10th Ave S
- Royal LePage East Kootenay Realty — 25 10 Avenue South
- Wheeldon Jason — 25 10th Ave S
Owning and letting
5311Lessors of real estate: the buildings themselves, filed under the building rather than the owner.
Named in the register
- Brookside Manor — 606 18th Avenue North
- Forest Park Estates — 2515 12th Street North
- Glen Livet Manor — 14 Victoria Avenue South
- HOSPITALITY COURTYARD INN — 1209 Cranbrook Street North
- Selkirk Manor — 101 12th Ave S
- Tamarac Gardens — 521 21st Avenue North
- Tweedsmuir Manor — 2321 12th Street North
- Willshire Village Apartments — 500 18th Ave N
- Woodland Court — 2125 2nd Street North
Building new homes
2361Residential builders and the general contractors who work for them.
Named in the register
- Batt Boys Insultation — PO Box 544 STN Main
- Cranbrook Mobile Home Village — 4086 Standard Hill Rd
- Diggers Construction — 2030 Cranbrook St N
- EAST KOOTENAY DRYWALL — 713 C 23 Avenue North
- Giro Construction and Renovation — 515 8th St S
- Hycrest Mobile Home Park — 1900 10th St S
- Jim Thibeault Construction — 3071 45th St S
- KEY CITY DRYWALL LTD — 45 Wattsville Street South
- Kootenay Log Homes — 3685 Echo Field Rd
- M and K Home Sales — 2421 Cranbrook St N
- Metro Engineering and Contrctng — 1470 Theatre Rd
- Robert Paulson Contracting — 224 15th Ave S
- Scottys Mobile Towing — 1216 11th Ave S
- Southern Interior Constr Association — 1525 Cranbrook St N
Financing it
5222Mortgage brokers and non-bank lenders.
Named in the register
- Community Futures Dev — 110 Slater Rd 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. Title $11.06 a search; LOTR names the people behind companies.
Landowners
- Province of British Columbia (provincial Crown) — about 59,396 ha of 98,651 ha, 60.2%
- Federal reserve land around Cranbrook — 7,966 ha across five reserves, 8.1% of the box
- Privately held land (owner not published) — 25,724 ha in the box, 26.1%; 2,130 ha inside the city, 67.5%
- City of Cranbrook — $10,764,692 of land at cost; 598.6 ha, 19.0% of the city
- Ktunaxa Nation Council — three city properties plus two held by an affiliated society
- Cranbrook Archives Museum & Landmark Foundation — four folios on Van Horne Street, $64,588 of City taxes exempted
Homebuilders
- Nexus Community Support Society — four exempted properties, $54,314 of City taxes forgone in 2025
- Community Connections Society of Southeast BC — three exempted properties, $25,134 of City taxes forgone
- Rocky Mountain Housing Society — 1601/1603 – 6th Street North, $3,078 exempted
- Summit Community Services Society — two exempted properties, $13,969 of City taxes forgone
Commercial landlords
- Tamarack Centre — owner not established — 290,133 sq ft on over 29 acres, 39 stores
- City of Cranbrook — $10,764,692 of land at cost; about 599 ha of municipal parcels and park
- Cranbrook Golf Club — 2700 2nd Street South, 50% exempt on class 8 seasonal only
7 marquee buildings examined, 5 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"
- Cranbrook Regional Hospital — 13 24th Ave N
- CRANBROOK REGIONAL HOSPITAL AUXILIARY — 30 C 8 Avenue South
- CRANBROOK VETERINARY HOSPITAL — 106 5 Avenue South
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 Cranbrook — 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.
- 15.4% of businesses here carry no coordinates, so a map or address lookup would miss them. Postal codes reach 97.9%.
Built from
geonet.kelowna— the local business registerwander.regions— city name, population, metrosearch.local— trait vocabulary and the come-to-you servicessearch.cozfranchises— 2,024 franchise brands