In addition to the economic gravitas head offices lend to their location, they also boost the local economy by way of employment and demand for products and services. As a result, it’s not just bragging rights that are at stake when considering the number of head offices in a city or province.

With that in mind, it’s a feather in Alberta’s economic cap that it’s home to 132 of Canada’s 800 largest companies (based on 2024 revenue)—second only to Ontario’s total of 353.*

Adjusting for population size, Alberta actually emerges as the leader with 2.7 large companies per 100,000 residents. Ontario is in second place at 2.2 followed by Saskatchewan at 2.1. Atlantic Canada has the fewest number of large companies at 0.8 per 100,000 residents.

At 105, Alberta’s large companies are concentrated in Calgary. Of these, 72 are listed as either an energy or oil field services company (there are only two energy/oil field services companies on the Alberta list outside Calgary).

The Edmonton Census Metropolitan Area is home to 22 of the 800 largest companies with the remaining five headquartered in Lacombe, Medicine Hat, Okotoks, Red Deer County, and Vegreville.

With revenue of $54 billion in 2024, Cenovus Energy Inc. is the largest company in Alberta and the 11th largest in the country. The energy companies Enbridge Inc., Imperial Oil Ltd., Suncor Energy Inc., and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. round out the top five largest businesses by revenue in Alberta. The largest non-energy company with its head office in Alberta is the railway Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. (it is in seventh spot at almost $15 billion in annual revenue).

The combined annual revenue of all 132 of the companies on the list with head offices in Alberta is over half a trillion dollars ($518 billion) with the average coming in at $3.9 billion per company.

*Every year, the Financial Post compiles a list of the 800 largest companies in Canada by revenue size. The data are available for purchase here.

Answer to the previous trivia question: The Toronto Blue Jays were founded in 1977.

Today’s trivia question: What was Canada’s largest company by revenue in 2024?