It seems like hardly a day goes by without some new study, article, or news piece coming out with something on standing desks. And I'm not just talking about internet news channels (like Huffington Post). TV segments, podcasts, blogs - It's still hot. So far, 2015 is living up Yahoo's prediction as being the year of the standing desk.
Standing desks have lived up to scrutiny, and have been successfully jumping through the scientific hoops (and continue to chalk up more and more evidence supporting the health and ergonomic benefits). It's safe to say they are past the 'fad' phase and have moved into the adoption phase.
As Canadians, we know that the media can be slanted more towards our Southern neighbour, though - so just how hot are standing desks in Canada? (since Anthrodesk is based out of Canada, and makes the bulk of our sales in Canada, we're interested in this!).
We looked at the numbers that were available and found out that adjustable height sit stand desks are still pretty hot - but like many new innovations, we're a little bit behind the U.S. (maybe a year or so).
The good news is that the growth is fast, and it is steady. Sales and search volumes are increasing about 50% every year. That is A HUGE increase; many industries in Canada will stay stagnant in 2015. This also follows closely with what many American standing desk vendors are reporting - 50% year over year growth.
This is great news for overall health trends and a nice countermeasure for the increasing obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular, and cancer rates that the population has been seeing. We have a long way to, go, though. Most companies still do not offer standing desks. Typically, it is the more modern, hipper companies offering them.
And while schools are slowly starting to bring in standing desks for students, most don't offer them to students (even though the results have been impressive). Even with a 50% growth rate, it will take Canada 5-10 years to see standing desks as a regular feature in all companies. I'm not talking about replacing EVERY desk with a standing desk, I'm just talking about making adjustable height standing desks available for those who want them.
We can already see the changes happening in the larger cities first. Again, we are seeing this in our sales numbers, and also from anecdotal evidence, and google searches per capita.
Toronto seems to be leading the way in Canada, specifically, central Toronto, although the GTA region, and Mississauga and Brampton seem to very aware of standing desks, and we expect significant growth there over the next year. Calgary and Edmonton have been extremely hot on standing desks over the last year.
Per capita, the Maritimes (specifically Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Charlottetown, PEI) may have the most "standers" in Canada, although perhaps the University research being conducted there may have something to do with that. Vancouver seems to be surprising laggard, although perhaps that's because there are more people running off in the woods and fewer people tied to their desks there :-)
On a provincial level, these the leading 5 provinces are: Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia
Of course, these numbers are from a VERY limited population set, and subject to error, but it does give us a starting point as to the growth of sit-stand desks in Canada, and where ergonomics is headed in the future.
Looking forward to seeing some details about growth (and lots more articles/stories/studies about the benefits) next year!
