Canada first legalized cannabis for adult use in 2018, becoming the first G-7 nation to adopt a national recreational cannabis legalization measure. The only country to adopt a national adult-use legalization measure before Canada was Uruguay, but Uruguay limits legal recreational cannabis sales to residents.
Zoom forward to today, and Malta, Luxembourg, Germany, South Africa, and the Czech Republic have also adopted national adult-use legalization measures. However, only Canada permits recreational cannabis sales to anyone of legal age, nationwide, regardless of their residency status. As such, Canada’s market currently serves as the best source for insightful national cannabis industry data.
Health Canada recently released cannabis product purchase data for Q4 2024. A total of 24,644,265 units were sold through licensed Canadian retailers, and that includes both medical and recreational units. Below is a graph breaking down product types and their percentages of market share via the Canadian Government:
Canada’s government also published data regarding what packaged inventory was in-stock at the time the data was captured (Q4 2024). See the graph below:
Canada’s government also found that the legal industry had 1,453,902 m2 of licensed indoor cultivation area, 364,925 m2 of licensed processing space, and 596 hectares of licensed outdoor cultivation space during Q4 2024.
“Statistics Canada released April retail sales for the country, with cannabis sales increasing from the March levels, up 5.7% to C$466.7 million.” New Cannabis Ventures reported about the most recently published monthly sales data (April 2025) from Canada’s legal market.