In keeping with an ongoing trend in recent years, sales of alcohol products in Canada continued to decline during the last recorded year. At the same time, sales of legal cannabis products in Canada increased, according to data recently published by Statistics Canada, the national statistical agency of the Canadian government.

“Federal and provincial governments earned $15.5 billion (-2.0%) from the control and sale of alcohol ($13.1 billion; -4.2%) and recreational cannabis ($2.5 billion; +11.5%) in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025. This includes net income from provincial liquor and cannabis authorities, excise taxes, retail sales taxes, other specific taxes, and licences and permits.” Statistics Canada stated in a news release.

“The decline in alcohol earnings in 2024/2025 was the largest annual decrease since Statistics Canada began tracking this series in 2004/2005.” the Canadian government agency noted.

Canada’s licensed alcohol industry sold an estimated $25.8 billion worth of beverages in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025, which was a decrease of 1.6% compared to fiscal year 2023/2024. The decrease in total sales revenue occurred despite an average increase of 1.6% in prices for Canadian alcoholic beverages from March 2024 to March 2025.

“On a volume basis, sales of alcohol declined by 3.0% to 2,898 million litres in 2024/2025. This was the fourth consecutive year volume sales have declined. On average, Canadians of legal drinking age purchased the equivalent of 8.0 standard alcoholic beverages per week in 2024/2025, down from 8.7 the previous fiscal year and 9.7 a decade ago.” Statistics Canada wrote.

Canada became the second country on the planet, and the first G-7 nation, to adopt a national adult-use legalization measure back in 2018. The only country to adopt a national recreational legalization measure before Canada was Uruguay, although Canada remains the only country to permit legal adult-use sales to anyone of legal age, regardless of their residency status.

“Sales of recreational cannabis by provincial cannabis authorities and other retail outlets increased 6.1% or $0.3 billion from the previous fiscal year to $5.5 billion in 2024/2025. Nevertheless, this was a marked slowdown from the sales increases in 2023/2024 (+11.6%) and 2022/2023 (+15.8%). The price of recreational cannabis decreased 1.1% from March 2024 to March 2025.” Statistics Canada wrote about the nation’s legal cannabis industry.

“Inhaled extracts was the fastest growing recreational cannabis category in 2024/2025, up 12.8%. The market share of inhaled extracts continued to increase in 2024/2025, up to almost one-third of total sales (31.1%). Solid cannabis edibles (-2.2%) was the lone cannabis category with a sales decline in 2024/2025.” the agency added.