Venture capital invested per capita in international context
- Startup pipeline — where Canadian founders are building their companies.
- Intellectual property generation & commercialization — whether Canada generates IP and keeps the value.
- Trademark registration times — how long trademark registration takes.
Israel and the United States have held the top two per-capita places in every year since 2020, far above the United Kingdom and Canada. Canada led the UK from 2020 to 2022, and the UK has led since 2023. This page tracks the series annually from primary national venture-capital association sources, normalized to USD per resident using mid-year population and annual-average exchange rates.
Four countries, three views: per-capita ($USD), absolute ($USD billions), and indexed to Canada = 100. Toggle between the views below.
National VC association figures, normalized using mid-year population.
The Canada–US gap widened sharply in 2025. Canada attracted ~USD 136 per resident in VC; the US attracted ~USD 1,004. That ratio (7.4×) is the widest in the six-year window, driven by the US AI funding surge — AI alone captured 65.4% of US venture deal value in 2025. Israel ($1,560 per capita) remains in a category of its own.
All four countries tracked on the same axis. The 2021 spike and 2022–2023 trough is global. Israel and the US have held the top two places throughout, and the UK overtook Canada in 2023.
Per-capita VC each year, all four countries, USD per resident.
Canada's per-capita VC peaked in 2021 at USD 311 and has not recovered to even half that level since. The US peaked in 2021 at USD 1,079 and has now matched it in 2025 (USD 1,004). Israel troughed in 2023 (post-October-7) at USD 1,031 and has rebuilt to USD 1,560. The UK has held within a USD 90–170 band the entire window.
| Country | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | vs Canada 2025 |
|---|
All figures USD per resident, computed as (native-currency VC invested × annual-average FX) ÷ mid-year population. Sources: CVCA (Canada), PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor (US), BVCA / UK Private Capital (UK), Startup Nation Central with IVC cross-reference (Israel). Population denominators from Statistics Canada, US Census Bureau, ONS, and Israel CBS.
In 2020, the US attracted 5.2× Canada's per-capita VC. In 2021, at the peak of the global cycle, the ratio compressed to 3.5×. By 2025 it has opened to 7.4×, the widest in the six-year series. The proximate driver is the US AI funding surge: AI deals captured 65.4% of US venture deal value in 2025, up from 47.2% in 2024 per PitchBook-NVCA. Canada captured a much smaller share of this AI funding wave, despite hosting two of the most-cited foundational AI research clusters globally (Toronto-Waterloo, Montréal). Canadian per-capita VC was roughly flat 2024 to 2025. The US accelerated.
Israeli per-capita VC was 11.5× Canada in 2025 (USD 1,560 vs USD 136). Israel has led the four-country group in every year of the series, including during the 2023 post-October-7 trough when its per-capita figure fell to USD 1,031, still 8.2× Canada in that year. The Israeli definition is broader than pure VC (Startup Nation Central reports total private tech funding, including some late-stage growth equity), so the gap is overstated by perhaps 20–25% on a strict like-for-like basis. Even adjusting for that, Israel runs roughly a 9× lead over Canada.
The UK is the most comparable benchmark in this set: similar population scale (68 M vs Canada's 42 M), similar fiscal capacity, similar legal-system DNA, no Silicon Valley analogue. UK per-capita VC was USD 149 in 2025, against Canada's USD 136, a gap of just 1.09× and well within annual measurement noise. The direction is what has changed. In 2020, Canada led the UK ($90 vs $72), and Canada stayed ahead through the 2021–2022 cycle. The two crossed in 2023 ($126 Canada vs $147 UK). The UK has led Canada every year since. The UK's BVCA report flags that £5B of its 2025 VC investment went to deeptech and AI specifically, a category where Canada under-indexes despite its research base.
Canadian per-capita VC peaked at USD 311 in 2021. The 2025 figure (USD 136) is 44% of that peak. The US 2025 figure (USD 1,004) is 93% of its 2021 peak. Israel's 2025 figure (USD 1,560) is 56% of its 2021 peak, but its trajectory is steeply upward (USD 1,031 → 1,232 → 1,560 across 2023–2025). Canada's trajectory has flattened in the USD 125–150 band for three years running. This is the same picture the Leaders Fund founder-location series shows from the other end of the funnel: capital is not returning to Canada at the rate it is returning to peer ecosystems.
Canada attracted USD 136 per resident in venture capital in 2025, 4th of 4, behind the UK at USD 149 and far behind the US and Israel.
- Compared with
- A four-country comparator set of Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel, on venture capital invested per resident in USD.
- Where Canada sits
- Canada ranks 4th of 4 at USD 136 per resident in 2025. The US was about 7.4× Canada and Israel about 11.5×.
- Which way it is moving
- Flat. Canadian per-capita VC was roughly flat 2024 to 2025 and has sat in the USD 125–150 band for three years, at 44% of its 2021 peak of USD 311.
- What the verdict follows
- Position in the peer set. Canada trails even its closest peer, and the gap to the UK has moved the wrong way since the two crossed in 2023.
- Data basis
- CVCA Year-End 2025, PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor Q4 2025, BVCA / UK Private Capital 2025, and Startup Nation Central 2025 Israeli Tech Annual Report, converted at annual-average exchange rates and divided by mid-year population. Page last reviewed June 2026 · Data current to 2025, the latest published by the CVCA.
Methodology notes
Indicator. Annual venture capital invested into domestic portfolio companies, expressed in USD per resident. Native-currency totals are sourced from each country's primary venture-capital trade association and converted to USD using annual-average exchange rates published by the issuing central bank. Population denominators are mid-year resident estimates from each country's official statistical agency.
Cross-source comparability. The four primary sources use slightly different definitions of "VC invested." CVCA, PitchBook-NVCA, and BVCA report VC fund deployments into domestic companies (with minor scope differences described below). Startup Nation Central reports total private funding raised by Israeli tech companies, which is broader and includes late-stage growth equity rounds that NVCA-PitchBook would classify outside venture. Israel's per-capita figure is therefore on the high side of like-for-like, but the directional ranking (Israel ≫ US ≫ UK ≈ Canada) is robust across methodologies. For year-over-year comparisons within a single country, each series is methodologically self-consistent.
Canada — CVCA. CVCA Year-End Canadian Venture Capital Market Overview. Counts disclosed VC equity investment into Canadian-domiciled companies by member firms and tracked non-member investors. From 2025, CVCA reports primary deal value and secondary transactions separately; this benchmark uses primary deal value only (the comparable series across years). 2025 total: CAD 8.0 B across 571 deals; deal count fell 12% year-over-year, capital deployed fell 6%.
United States — PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor. "VC deal value" as defined by PitchBook: equity capital invested in US-headquartered companies in identifiable venture rounds (Seed through late-stage venture). Includes corporate venture and non-traditional investors when the round is venture-structured. Excludes pure secondaries, growth equity buyouts, and venture debt. 2025 total: USD 339.4 B across 16,709 deals, the second-highest annual deal value on record and USD 18.8 B behind the 2021 peak.
United Kingdom — BVCA / UK Private Capital. Annual Report on Investment Activity (preliminary) and "Venture Capital in the UK" series. "VC investment in UK businesses" as reported by BVCA member firms, with non-member rounds captured through the Beauhurst data feed. BVCA's coverage is narrower than the full UK VC market because some non-member US-based VCs investing into the UK are not fully captured; the series is directionally accurate but the level may understate the UK total by 10–20% in any given year. 2025 total: £8.0 B, of which £5 B went to deeptech and AI.
Israel — Startup Nation Central with IVC cross-reference. Startup Nation Central Israeli Tech Annual Report. "Private funding raised by Israeli tech companies." That is broader than the pure-VC definitions above. Includes late-stage growth equity and some corporate strategic investment. Used here because it is the most consistently reported headline figure for the Israeli ecosystem and because no other Israeli source publishes a strictly comparable VC-only annual total over the full window. 2025 total: USD 15.6 B across 717 rounds, with half of all capital raised concentrated in rounds larger than USD 100 M.
Currency normalization. Native-currency values converted to USD using annual-average exchange rates from the Bank of Canada (CAD) and Bank of England (GBP). For 2025, where annual averages are not yet final at time of writing, the rolling average of monthly rates through April 2026 is used and will be replaced with the official annual average in the next refresh.
Per-capita normalization. Mid-year resident population in millions from each country's official statistical agency. Canada: Statistics Canada Table 17-10-0009-01. US: US Census Bureau Annual Estimates. UK: ONS Mid-Year Estimates. Israel: Central Bureau of Statistics. The per-capita treatment normalizes for population scale (important because the US, UK, and Canada differ by more than an order of magnitude in population) but treats VC as a per-resident phenomenon, which understates its concentration in major metros (Bay Area / NYC / Boston, London, Tel Aviv, Toronto-Waterloo-Montréal).
What this metric measures, and what it doesn't.
- Measures: capacity to attract venture-scale investment into domestic companies, normalized for population.
- Does not measure: where Canadian founders are actually building (this is the Leaders Fund founder-location series, the primary metric for this theme); where Canadian VC funds are deploying their capital (CVCA tracks this separately and a material share goes to US companies); outcomes such as unicorn formation, scale-up density, or IPO listings.
- Treat as triangulation, not replacement, for the Leaders Fund founder-location metric. The two series capture overlapping but non-identical phenomena and should be read together.
Vintage revisions. All four sources revise prior-year figures as late-arriving rounds are disclosed. CVCA's revisions are typically 2–5% upward in the year following publication. PitchBook's revisions can be larger (5–10% upward) because it actively backfills disclosed rounds for up to 18 months after period close.
Sources by country
- CVCA Year-End 2025 — $8B across 571 deals
- CVCA Q4 / Year-End 2024 Canadian Venture Capital Market Overview (PDF)
- CVCA Year-End 2023
- CVCA Intelligence — historical reports archive
- Q4 2025 PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor (PDF)
- Q4 2024 PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor (PDF)
- Q4 2023 PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor (PDF)
- PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor — archive landing page
- Venture Capital in the UK 2025 (May 2026)
- BVCA Report on Investment Activity 2024 (PDF, May 2025)
- BVCA Report on Investment Activity 2023 (PDF, May 2024)
- BVCA Investment Activity — archive landing page
- Startup Nation Central — 2025 Israeli Tech Annual Report ($15.6B funding)
- Startup Nation Central — 2024 Israeli Tech Annual Report ($12.2B funding)
- Startup Nation Central — 2023 Israeli Tech Annual Report
- IVC Research Center — Tech Reports & Insights
- Statistics Canada — Population estimates, quarterly (Table 17-10-0009-01)
- US Census Bureau — Annual Estimates of the Resident Population
- UK Office for National Statistics — Population estimates
- Israel Central Bureau of Statistics — Population
