Victoria indicatorsAll measures Business and jobs
Business licences issued
7,215 licences
No target expected. This is a context measure. A count of licences issued, shown as activity. Targets and comparisons
Up 3.0% in a year.
Source: City of Victoria. We read it on Nov 11, 2026.
Over time
Apr–Jun 2026 Licences, by quarter
- 7,215 licences
Targets and comparisons
Context measure: no target expected
Context measure: no target expected. A count of licences issued, shown as activity.
Show the numbers as a table
| Period | Value |
|---|---|
| Apr–Jun 2026 | 7,215 |
| Apr–Jun 2025 | 7,004 |
Who decides
City of Victoria Council. Regulates businesses and runs the City’s business licence system by bylaw. Community Charter, s. 8 (6)
Show the law and the dates
| Body | What it decides | Law or bylaw |
|---|---|---|
| City of Victoria Council | Regulates businesses and runs the City’s business licence system by bylaw. | Community Charter, s. 8 (6) Community Charter, s. 15 |
Councils: last general local election October 17, 2026; next on October 19, 2030, the third Saturday of October set by the Local Government Act, s. 52.
Each row says what a body decides and links to the law, order or bylaw that gives it that role. It does not say who caused a change: markets, households and other governments also move these numbers. Who decides what, for every measure · How we choose
What this number does not show
- A licence shows a business is registered to operate in the City; it does not show its size, whether it is open daily, or storefront vacancy.
One more limit
- Licences include home-based and non-store businesses and some rental categories, not only storefronts.
Not measured yet in business and jobs: empty storefronts and offices downtown, cleanliness and needle pick-up requests. See all 17 gaps
In plain words
How many business licences the City had issued, as reported in its quarterly economic dashboard, compared with a year earlier.
How we decide “About the same”
The change is 3.0% of the earlier value, below the 5% threshold.
A higher number means more businesses hold a City licence. 7,215 business licences in Q2 2026 compared with 7,004 a year earlier (+3.0%), as reported in the City's economic dashboard.
Outcome measures read Better, Worse or About the same; published government targets read Ahead of, On or Behind target; value-judgement measures read Rising, Falling or Steady in a neutral colour. A change smaller than the agency's own margin of error, or otherwise smaller than 5% of the earlier value, is About the same (or Steady). No change is calculated across a marked break in a series. The rule.
All notes on this number
Why it matters. Licences show businesses registered to operate in the City. They do not show storefront vacancy.
- A licence shows a business is registered to operate in the City; it does not show its size, whether it is open daily, or storefront vacancy.
- Licences include home-based and non-store businesses and some rental categories, not only storefronts.
- The City also publishes licence records as open data, but they carry no neighbourhood field, so a downtown-only count is not shown.
Which places
Area: City of Victoria
The City of Victoria municipality only, all neighbourhoods.
Included
- All City of Victoria neighbourhoods, including Downtown, James Bay, Fairfield, Fernwood, Oaklands, Hillside/Quadra, North Park, Burnside, Victoria West, Rockland, Jubilee and Gonzales
Not included
- Saanich, Oak Bay, Esquimalt, Langford and every other municipality in the region
Official definition
How the agency describes it: City of Victoria.
How we got it
This number is published by the agency as shown; it is not calculated here. The script reads it from the agency’s own document and refuses to show it unless the expected text is found.
Licence and credits
This figure is public but not under an open licence: the agency publishes it for anyone to read, and it is shown here with credit and a link to the agency’s terms. About licences.
- Licence
- Public data, not under an open licence. Used with attribution. Agency’s terms of use
- Updated by agency
- Quarterly (City economic dashboard); latest release Aug 21, 2026 (date of the agency’s file)
- Retrieved
- Nov 11, 2026, 9:17 PM B.C. time
Source: City of Victoria, Victoria's Economic Dashboard, Q2 2026. Public document, used with attribution; not endorsed by the publisher.
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