23 October 2015

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business unveiled its 2015 entrepreneurial communities study, and the City of Sherbrooke figured prominently on several fronts.

In terms of entrepreneurial perspective, an indicator evaluating business owners’ optimism about the future, Sherbrooke ranks 10^th among major Canadian cities. It is the only city in Québec on this list.

Sherbrooke is ranked 5^th among major Canadian cities for its entrepreneurial policy. This indicator evaluates the efforts made by municipal governments to support entrepreneurship. Only one other city in Québec made it onto this list, Trois-Rivières, which ranked 10^th among major cities.

Sherbrooke’s overall entrepreneurial index rose from 56.7 in 2014 to 60.3 in 2015, an increase of 3.6 points. Despite this noteworthy increase, the city has fallen in the rankings, from 40^th to 42^nd place. The City of Sherbrooke ranks 7^th overall in Québec, behind Rivière-du-Loup, Drummondville, Victoriaville, Saint-Georges, Joliette, and Rimouski, but is 1^st in Québec and 11^th in Canada for cities and metropolitan areas with more than 150 000 inhabitants.

To establish the entrepreneurial characteristics of 121 cities and economic regions in Canada, the CFIB analyzed 14 indicators divided into 3 categories: Presence, perspective, and policy. The rankings published by the CFIB in its annual report Canada’s Top Entrepreneurial Cities are aimed at evaluating the vitality of Canada’s municipalities in terms of entrepreneurship.

The 2015 edition of the CFIB’s report is available online at http://www.cfib-fcei.ca/cfib-documents/rr3370.pdf.