Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
What Dartmouth is made of: the communities whose institutions are here, the sectors its 3,983 businesses sit in, the franchises already on the ground, and the services a newcomer could start.
3,983 businesses on file · 134 trades · 33 sectors · registry population 72,139 · built from geonet.halifax on 2026-10-07
Visiting rather than moving? The free guidebook for Dartmouth → — 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 99% 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.
No census subdivision is mapped for ca-dartmouth in local/census-map.json, so this page carries no census figures. The mapping is kept explicit because Canada has several places called London, Toronto and Kelowna, and attaching the wrong one would put another city's demographics on this page.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| German | 1 | — | — |
German Heritage Language School |
| Islamic | 1 | 1 | — |
Islamic Association Of The Maritime Provinces |
| Scottish | — | — | 2 | trade on Wright Avenue (2)
|
| Chinese | — | — | 1 | |
| Italian | — | — | 1 | |
| Portuguese | — | — | 1 | |
| Russian | — | — | 1 | |
| Norwegian | — | — | 1 | |
| Swiss | — | — | 1 | |
| Caribbean | — | — | 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 3,983 businesses actually are, and the specific trades inside each sector.
| Sector | Businesses | Share | What is in it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Living | 254 | 6.4% | place of worship (74) · apartment (43) · cleaning (33) · furniture (31) · daycare (25) · veterinary (10) · janitor (10) · laundry (8) |
| Business | 222 | 5.6% | consulting (71) · association (70) · accounting (35) · government (24) · auction (5) · foundation (4) · cemetary (1) · vending (1) |
| Health | 191 | 4.8% | physician (73) · pharmacy (25) · medical clinic (24) · fitness club (24) · optical (13) · health foods (8) · home healthcare (3) · chiro (2) |
| Automotive | 190 | 4.8% | autos (84) · auto repair (51) · auto parts (15) · motorcycle (3) · tires (3) |
| Construction | 187 | 4.7% | general contractor (50) · plumbing (24) · carpet (24) · painting (23) · electrician (20) · roofing (11) · machinery (11) · concrete (10) |
| Retail | 185 | 4.6% | department store (59) · gifts (28) · convenience (22) · photography (19) · flowers (18) · jeweler (14) · discount store (6) · toys (5) |
| Dining | 168 | 4.2% | restaurant (119) · pizza (35) · pubs (7) · diner (4) · fast food (2) · steakhouse (1) |
| Beauty | 151 | 3.8% | hair stylist (103) · dentist (31) · barber (13) |
| Finance | 138 | 3.5% | insurance (62) · bank (25) · mortgage (3) · bankruptcy (3) · loans (2) · real estate (2) · credit union (2) |
| Living & Home | 117 | 2.9% | garden (1) |
| Manufacturing | 100 | 2.5% | industrial supplier (53) · fabrication (25) · machinery (8) · pulp and paper (6) · chemical (5) · pallets (1) |
| Logistics | 89 | 2.2% | truck transportation (25) · storage (13) · packaging (10) · towing (2) · wholesale (1) · forklifts (1) |
| Education | 87 | 2.2% | school (68) · library (9) · writing (3) |
| Tech | 83 | 2.1% | computers (63) · wireless (10) · telecom (6) |
| Construction & Realty | 78 | 2% | |
| Retail Goods | 71 | 1.8% | |
| Fashion | 69 | 1.7% | clothing (69) |
| Food & Beverage | 58 | 1.5% | vegetable (1) · fruit (1) |
| Realty | 57 | 1.4% | real estate (56) · landscaping (1) |
| Sports | 53 | 1.3% | boating marine (38) · golf course (12) · martial arts (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.
40 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 | 9 | 13,700 |
| Salvation Army | retail | 6 | — |
| Royal Bank | bank | 5 | — |
| A&W Restaurants | fastfood | 4 | 694 |
| Dairy Queen | fastfood | 4 | 5,900 |
| Petro Canada | fuel | 4 | 1,512 |
| Shoppers Drug Mart | pharmacy | 4 | 927 |
| Buck or Two | retail | 3 | 139 |
| Curves For Women | fitness | 3 | 10,000 |
| H&R Block | tax | 3 | 12,165 |
| TD Canada Trust | bank | 3 | — |
| Wal-Mart | retail | 3 | 6,500 |
| Blockbuster Video | video | 2 | 5,900 |
| Burger King | fastfood | 2 | 11,000 |
| Canadian Tire | retail | 2 | 455 |
| Co-operators | insurance | 2 | — |
| Cotton Ginny | retail | 2 | — |
| Enterprise Rent A Car | car | 2 | 5,400 |
| Hakim Optical | specialty | 2 | 124 |
| La Senza | lingerie | 2 | — |
| Manchu WOK | fastfood | 2 | 200 |
| Northern Reflections | retail | 2 | 150 |
| Rogers Video | video | 2 | 300 |
| Rogers Wireless | wireless | 2 | — |
| Royal Canadian Legion | club | 2 | 160 |
| Sign-A-Rama | specialty | 2 | 800 |
| Suzy Shier | retail | 2 | — |
| Weed Man | specialty | 2 | — |
| Apple Auto Glass | specialty | 1 | 110 |
| Assist-2-Sell | realestate | 1 | 630 |
| Athletes World | retail | 1 | — |
| Baskin Robbins | dessert | 1 | 2,800 |
| Benjamin Moore Paints | home | 1 | 4,000 |
| Book Rack | book | 1 | 200 |
| Boston Pizza | pizza | 1 | 250 |
| Bulk Barn | retail | 1 | 100 |
| Canada Post locations | post | 1 | 23,000 |
| Color Your World | retail | 1 | 98 |
| Comfort Inn | familyhotel | 1 | — |
| Contours Express | fitness | 1 | — |
| Danier Leather | retail | 1 | — |
| Disney Store | retail | 1 | — |
| Eddie Bauer | retail | 1 | 370 |
| Everything for a Dollar Store | retail | 1 | 70 |
| Extreme Pita | deli | 1 | 174 |
| Fantastic Sams | hair | 1 | 1,350 |
| Flight Centre | travel | 1 | 1,500 |
| Furniture Medic | specialty | 1 | 600 |
| Future Shop | inc | 1 | 110 |
| Great Canadian Bagel | deli | 1 | 48 |
| Handyman Connection | specialty | 1 | — |
| Harley Davidson locations | motorcycle | 1 | — |
| Herbal Magic | health | 1 | 315 |
| Home Depot | home | 1 | 2,104 |
| Home Hardware | home | 1 | 1,000 |
| Island Ink-Jet | retail | 1 | 200 |
| Jani-King | cleaner | 1 | 115 |
| Laura Secord | dessert | 1 | — |
| Lions Club | club | 1 | — |
| Little Caesars Pizza | pizza | 1 | 1,800 |
| Mappins Jewellers | retail | 1 | — |
| Merry Maids | cleaner | 1 | 970 |
| Minute Muffler | auto | 1 | — |
| Mr. Lube | auto | 1 | 88 |
| NAPA Auto Parts | auto | 1 | 18,000 |
| New York Fries | fastfood | 1 | 185 |
| Nutrition House | health | 1 | 62 |
| Padgett Business Services | tax | 1 | 400 |
| Pizza Delight | pizza | 1 | 108 |
| Pizza Hut | pizza | 1 | 10,000 |
| Princess Auto | auto | 1 | 25 |
| Randy River | retail | 1 | 65 |
| Rent-A-Wreck | car | 1 | — |
| Second Cup | coffee | 1 | — |
| Shell Canada | fuel | 1 | 2,100 |
| Signs Now | specialty | 1 | — |
| Sony Store | retail | 1 | — |
| St. John | retail | 1 | — |
| Staples Business Depot | officesupplies | 1 | 1,800 |
| Stop & Shop | supermarket | 1 | 360 |
| Sunglass Hut | retail | 1 | — |
| Superior Propane | fuel | 1 | — |
| Swiss Chalet | fastfood | 1 | 190 |
| Sylvan Learning | school | 1 | 710 |
| Things Engraved | retail | 1 | — |
| Tim Hortons | coffee | 1 | 2,890 |
| Tip Top Tailors | retail | 1 | 100 |
| Toys "R" Us | retail | 1 | 1,400 |
| Wine Kitz | liquor | 1 | — |
| Young Drivers of Canada | specialty | 1 | — |
| Limited name only | retail | 34 | — |
| Sobeys name only | supermarket | 9 | 224 |
| CIBC name only | bank | 6 | — |
| ScotiaBank name only | bank | 6 | — |
| Manor name only | retail | 5 | — |
| Sears name only | inc | 4 | 2,300 |
| Hallmark name only | greetingcards | 3 | 5,600 |
| Zellers name only | retail | 3 | — |
| AllState name only | insurance | 2 | — |
| easyHome locations name only | retail | 2 | 160 |
| Fabutan name only | health | 2 | 151 |
| Fossil name only | retail | 2 | — |
| Honda name only | car | 2 | — |
| Michaels name only | retail | 2 | 805 |
| Reitmans name only | retail | 2 | 343 |
| Aldo name only | retail | 1 | — |
| Aliant name only | wireless | 1 | — |
| Ardene name only | retail | 1 | — |
| Bootlegger name only | retail | 1 | — |
| Burton name only | retail | 1 | — |
| CARQUEST name only | auto | 1 | 3,400 |
| CarStar name only | auto | 1 | 120 |
| Champion name only | supermarket | 1 | 1,000 |
| Cinnabon name only | dessert | 1 | 651 |
| Esprit name only | retail | 1 | — |
| Fibrenew name only | specialty | 1 | — |
| Jacob name only | retail | 1 | 200 |
| Ledgers name only | specialty | 1 | — |
| Lexus name only | luxurycar | 1 | — |
| Midas name only | auto | 1 | 1,800 |
| MMMuffins name only | coffee | 1 | — |
| Nissan name only | auto | 1 | — |
| Pantorama name only | retail | 1 | — |
| PETsMART name only | pet | 1 | 885 |
| Roots name only | retail | 1 | 145 |
| Safeway name only | supermarket | 1 | 1,767 |
| Stitches name only | retail | 1 | — |
| Toyota name only | car | 1 | — |
| Volkswagen name only | — | 1 | — |
| YMCA name only | fitness | 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
- Assist 2 Sell Homeworks Realty — 202 Brownlow Ave
- Boutilier and Association — 175 Main St
- Century 21 Trident Realty — 942 Cole Harbour Road
- Civtech Engineering Surveying — 3237 Stn East
- Cynthia Lawlor Real Estate — 123 Lexington Ave
- Eagle Realty Ltd Teresa Mannett — 15 Driftwood Crescent
- First Realty — 16 Tulip St
- Lees Developments — 5 Cumberland Dr
- Pat King 1995Ltd — 200 Waverley Road
- People Realty Advantage — 1088 Cole Harbour Road
- RJC Real Estate Management — 45 Alderney Drive 1804
- Roycom — 11 Morris Drive
- SNC Lavalin Profac — 35 Wentworth
- Sowerby and CO — 202 Brownlow Ave
Owning and letting
5311Lessors of real estate: the buildings themselves, filed under the building rather than the owner.
Named in the register
- A P L Properties Ltd Lakewood Manor — 81 Lakecrest Drive
- Barrington Lane Developments — 15 Kennedy Drive
- Belmont Court — 947 Cole Harbour Rd
- Canarose CO — 57 Portland St
- Cedar Court — 1109 Cole Harbour Road
- Cumberland Place — 10 Cumberland Dr
- Highfield Park Apartments — 96 Highfield Park Drive
- Homburg Atlantic — 35 Highfield Park Drive
- Jennifer Place — 1182 Cole Harbour Rd
- Kings Wood Apartments — 1000 Micmac Boulevard
- Lakecrest Estates — 31 Russell Lake Dr
- One Oak Street — 1 Oak Street
- W M Apartments — 12 Regent Drive 305
- Wise Man Investments — 45 Elmwood Ave
Building new homes
2361Residential builders and the general contractors who work for them.
Named in the register
- Ascon Paving Contractors — 14 Delta Drive
- Atlantic Building Structures — 18 Bayswater Rd
- Atlantic Pro Painting — 66 Albro Lake Road
- Atlantic Windows — 83 Collins Grove
- E E Contracting — 11 Greenoch Drive
- Forrest Brothers Constr — 28 Penhorn Dr
- G and I Smith Home Improvements — 136 Pinewood Cres
- J K Mills Contracting — 8 Landrace Cres
- Jack Whebby Builders and Rpr — 268 Waverley Rd
- Jacobs Catalytic — 600 Pleasant St
- K B Clarke Construction — 14 Lake Major Rd
- Lakeland Dry Wall — 57 Gammon Crescent
- Nuforth Developments and Paving — PO Box 2823 STN East
- Smb Contracting Service — 26 Lexington Ave
Financing it
5222Mortgage brokers and non-bank lenders.
Named in the register
- Customer First Financing — 230 Wyse Rd
- Home Loans Canada — 800 Windmill Road
- Mortgage Centre The — 175 Main Street 202
- Mortgage Centre The — 15 Alderney Drive 258
- Mortgage Centre TheRandy Locke — 175 Main Street 202
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. Part of Halifax: values and sales open, owners behind $99.65/month Property Online.
Homebuilders
- Killam Apartment REIT — 5,709 units across 67 Halifax-area properties; Dartmouth not broken out
- Owner of the Highfield Park portfolio — up to 20 parcels on Highfield Park Drive and Joseph Young Street, $108,500,000
- 2 Killkee Gate buyer — 298 units, $82,500,000
Commercial landlords
- Rank Inc. — 676,500 sq ft (Mic Mac Mall) on 50 acres
- Crombie REIT — 6 Dartmouth properties
- Halifax Regional Municipality — serviced lot inventory in Burnside (Phase 13) plus Ragged Lake and City of Lakes business parks
- Burnside industrial portfolio buyers — $243.75M across two multi-parcel transfers (2019 and 2021)
- Killam Apartment REIT — 214,154 sq ft of stand-alone commercial space in Nova Scotia across 6 properties
8 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"
- Dartmouth Veterinary Hospital — 61 Tacoma Drive
- Companion Animal Hospital — 900 Cole Harbour Road
- Colby Village Veterinary Hospital — 4 Forest Hills Parkway
- Nova Scotia Hospital Mental Health Services Halifa — 51 Forest Hills Parkway
- Acres Animal Hospital — 721 Main Street
- Helson Chiropractic Health Centre — 590 Portland Street
- Harbour Cities Veterinary Hospital — 194 Wyse Road
- Nova Scotia Hospital Switchboard — 300 Pleasant Street
- Nova Scotia Hospital Assessment Services — 300 Pleasant Street
- Nova Scotia Hospital Mental Health Services Darmou — 300 Pleasant Street
- Dartmouth General Hospital — 325 Pleasant St
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 Halifax — the brokerages and licensed agents to call → (Dartmouth is served from Halifax)
What this record cannot tell you
Named in full, because the gaps are the part most likely to be misread as an answer.
- No census figures on this page: this region is not mapped to a census subdivision in local/census-map.json, so the community counts here are business-register institutions, which is a different measurement and cannot substitute for a population.
- 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.
- 31.1% of businesses here carry no coordinates, so a map or address lookup would miss them. Postal codes reach 98.1%.
Built from
geonet.halifax— the local business registerwander.regions— city name, population, metrosearch.local— trait vocabulary and the come-to-you servicessearch.cozfranchises— 2,024 franchise brands