Distillers Canada
A one-page guide to Canada for the spirits trade: the country, its people, its economy and how it drinks.
At a glance
- Capital
- Ottawa
- Official languages
- English, French
- Currency
- Canadian dollar (CAD)
- Time zone
- UTC-3.5 to UTC-7 (standard time)
- Area
- 15,634,410 km²
People
- Population
- 41.7 million (2025)
- Population growth
- 0.9% a year
- Living in towns and cities
- 82.9%
- Aged under 15
- 15.0%
- Aged 65 and over
- 20.3%
- Life expectancy
- 82.1 years
Economy
- GDP
- US$2.32 trillion (2025)
- GDP per person
- US$55,698 (2025)
- Economic growth
- 1.74268536175708% (2025)
- Inflation
- 2.07232411149103% (2025)
Climate
Varies widely: continental interior and Prairies with long harsh winters (snow cover up to about six months inland), milder and wetter coastal British Columbia, icy permafrost north.
Alcohol
- Alcohol is
- Legal
- Legal drinking age
- 19 in most provinces; 18 in Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec
- Alcohol per adult a year
- 9.6 litres of pure alcohol (2022)
- What people drink
- Beer 43%, wine 26%, spirits 30% (2022)
- Traditional drinks
- Canadian (rye) whisky
Sources: World Bank (population, economy and demographics), WHO Global Health Observatory (alcohol per adult and drinking mix); Wikipedia: Canada (basics, climate, ports); Wikipedia: Legal drinking age; World Bank Open Data (population, GDP, growth, inflation, area); WHO Global Health Observatory: total alcohol per capita; UN Comtrade (HS 2208 trade); Wikipedia: Canadian whisky; Wikipedia: Beer in Canada; Wikipedia - Alcohol monopoly (Canadian provincial boards). Figures are the latest each source publishes; the year is shown beside each one.