No. 07 / The counting room
5,682counted. Dated. Checkable.
Official statistics skip most small towns and run more than a year behind. 55 of the 77 towns on this page have never had a business count published about them before, by anyone. Pick your town and the page counts it for you: every number comes straight from the List, dated 24 JUL 2026, with the math showing.
Now counting the whole region: 5,682 businesses across 77 towns.
The region, counted
The whole region at a glance. Tap a town above and every number on this page re-counts for that town.
On the List
5,682
Per 1,000 residents
–
pick a town to see its rate
Have their own website
57%
at least: I can only count the websites I have found
Towns and valleys
77
Every town, ranked
Tap any town to see its count. For most of these places, this is the first business count anyone has ever published.
What the region is made of
The region's business mix, biggest group first. A business that fits two categories is counted in both.
What I could not find
Everyday businesses with no listing yet in some decent-sized towns. That does not mean the town has none, it means I could not find one: no website, no directory listing, no public record anywhere. Know one? Send them my way. Thinking of starting one? This is a head start on your homework.
Who has a website
The share of each town's businesses with a website of their own. Every number means “at least”, because I can only count the websites I have found. The rest you can find here, and mostly nowhere else online.
Counted straight from the List, 24 JUL 2026. Populations: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census. Nothing on this page is estimated.
DID YOU KNOW
205
businesses on Columbia Ave in Castlegar. The busiest street on the List.
1 per 8
Kaslo has one business for every 8 people who live there.
303
businesses put the word Kootenay right in their name.
55
towns got their first-ever published business count, right here on this page.
2,458
businesses have no website at all. The List is where you find them.
The small town that wins
In Kaslo, one business for every 8 people.
139 businesses, 1,049 people in the 2021 census. For its size, no town in the Kootenays has more, and every one of them is listed here.
About that Manhattan line
Nelson loves telling visitors it has more restaurants per person than San Francisco, or Manhattan, depending on the telling. Nobody ever shows the math. So here it is, dated: the List has 42 restaurants in Nelson, and 68 places to eat or drink all told, against a 2021 census population of 11,106. That is 6.12 eating places per 1,000 residents.
Whether that beats San Francisco depends on whose San Francisco number you borrow, which is exactly the problem with the legend. This figure, at least, you can check: every one of those 68 places is on the List with a source and a date.
What changed this month
What each month did to the List: businesses added, corrected, and removed. The Ledger keeps the stories; these are the totals.
The List is brand new: everything on it arrived with the first count. Starting with the next monthly sweep, this table will show what got added, fixed and removed. The Ledger will carry the details as they happen.
Town against town
Pick two towns and see how many of each kind of business they have, side by side. A zero means nothing is listed there yet, which is worth knowing if you are thinking of opening one.
Every kind of business below has at least one listing in both towns. The numbers show which town has more of each.
A zero means the List has none, not that the town has none. A business with no website and no listing anywhere is invisible to every source I read, which is exactly the gap worth filling.
Odds and ends
Small findings that did not fit anywhere else.
The busiest streets on the List
Columbia Ave, Castlegar205
Baker St, Nelson122
Cranbrook St N, Cranbrook104
Canyon St, Creston74
2nd Ave, Fernie72
The words businesses name themselves with
303 businesses have “Kootenay” in their name. After the towns themselves, the most popular words: services (168) · centre (146) · mountain (129) · contracting (92) · electric (89) · society (80).
The tiniest places break the math in the best way: Ainsworth Hot Springs has 13 businesses and only 20 residents. Too small to rank fairly, too good not to mention.
No. 10 / How to check these numbers
- Every number is counted straight from the List, compiled 24 JUL 2026. Nothing is estimated, projected, or borrowed.
- Per-person rates use that community's own 2021 census population (Statistics Canada). If a place has no census figure of its own, it shows no rate rather than a borrowed one.
- Website numbers mean “at least”: I can only count the websites I have found.
- These are counts of the List, not official statistics, and the two measure different things: Statistics Canada counts tax accounts, the List counts front doors you can walk up to or phone.
- “Added” and “removed” describe the List itself, never a business opening or closing. The Ledger records each change with its reason.