New figures published by B.C. Statistics, collected well before the current COVID-19 pandemic, show far fewer businesses in B.C. have declared bankruptcy in 2019 compared t0 2010 and 2003.
In 2019, 90 businesses declared bankruptcy, a fraction of incorporated businesses. While the respective timelines of incorporation and bankruptcy rarely match, 2019 saw 44,657 incorporations in all of British Columbia. By contrast, 299 businesses had declared bankruptcy in 2010 and a little more than 1,000 in 2003. That year saw 22,531 incorporations.
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In other words, the number of bankruptcies have gone down over time, as the number of incorporations has gone up, pointing towards an improving business climate in British Columbia during the past two decades.
Personal bankruptcies have also gone down over time. In 2003, 9,393 British Columbia filed for personal bankruptcy. By 2009, at the height of the recession, the figure stood at 10,639 after having dropped during the intervening period. Since then, it has been steadily declining and stood at 4,134 in 2019, a slight increase from the previous year of 4,072.
These bankruptcy figures, collected by the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy Canada, do not reflect current developments, as COVID-19 threatens the provincial economy.
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