Recently read in the news that the average Canadian household now has a net worth of $400,151 CAD, a record high. Yay, time to partay＼(~o~)／ This is great news because more money translates into better purchasing power so buying goods and services become more affordable, relatively speaking.
I didn’t know exactly why my net worth has been going up so quickly since the beginning of this year, but it makes more sense now with this new information. I think by being exposed to hot markets my personal finances has somehow benefited 🙂 The study points out that Vancouver still leads the country with the most wealth as the average net worth per household here is a whopping $662,600. Wowzers that’s a lot of money 😀 So far my net worth isn’t even close to that number yet but if I stay in Vancouver and continue to save and invest I’m sure one day I will become average as well haha. 
At my part time job for example, a lot of students I work with bring capital to the school from foreign countries. The money allows for them to get an education and is a source of income for the local Vancouverites like myself 😀 Win win.
And Saskatchewan is apparently the leader of economic growth. Real estate prices increased 7.7% last year. Good thing I locked in the contract to buy the farm earlier this year for $172,500. I remember blogging about it in the spring and was nervous that I might have overpaid. But now I realize even if I did, the spread is probably gone by now anyway 🙂 I hope my land will continue to grow as other people look for investment opportunities in the prairies. But who will be the greater fool? hehe.
This study is quite telling, but of course average isn’t always a good barometer of relative wealth because the numbers can be heavily skewed by the ultra wealthy. So let’s find out what the median household net worth in Canada is 😀 Last year a study that I blogged about showed the median net worth per adult is $89,014. And from the 2011 Census, we know that there are 13,320,600 private households in Canada. We also know that Canada has approximately 35,000,000 people. This means that there is roughly 2.63 people per household. If the median person is worth $89,014 then the median household would have a net worth of roughly $234,000. Probably not very scientific, but it gives us a ball park figure anyway.
Disclaimer: I’m bad at math 😛
As you might have expected the median household net worth at $234,000 is much lower than the average 🙂 Nevertheless I probably still have a couple years to save before I’m considered median lol. Speaking of wealth, I recently published a new page dedicated to net worth statistics 🙂
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Random Useless Fact: How to propose to someone if you’re on a tight budget 😛
I tend to ignore averages and statistics because they’re usually used to make the writer’s point . It may be biased or not. The number does not matter if you are deep i debt or have a net worth that is higher. I usually measure myself using my goals and progress.
I’ve certainly used averages to make points in the past even though I knew it wasn’t an accurate representation of the whole story. Finding an anchor point to measure against is more important because finances are relative 🙂
I’m doing my best to keep those averages down! My NW peaked in February and is now a whopping 12% less. Oh well… Showing the exact same trend as last year.
Business might be picking up for you since it’s wedding season 🙂
The science of stats completely boggles my mind sometimes. Everybody keeps talking how average people are in debt to their eyeballs and can’t pay their bills – yet the average wealth is close to a half a million dollars.
Statistics can be very misleading. There’s a saying that stats can be manipulated based on what the writer wants to convey. It’s up to us, the readers, to reconcile the facts. I think it’s true that people in general have a lot of debt. The way we got those debt is largely due to housing. In 2001, the average home price in Canada was $200,000, but today it is almost $390,000. In the past people had maybe a $160,000 mortgage when they bought a new home, but now they’d have over $300,000 in mortgage debt for buying the same home. And of course there’s two sides to the coin. Although we have more debt now, our homes are also worth almost twice as much as before which makes us look rich 🙂 I think this is commonly referred to as house poor lol.
Ah im not climbing uo on the ladder to wealthy. Lol on the ring in burger! That would have been my dream proposal.
Since the study was for households you can combine your fiance’s net worth with yours to get a more accurate reflection of where you are on the wealth ladder 🙂
You make a good point, with such wealth disparity in Canada the difference from the median to the average would likely be very large!
That’s true. Compared to many other western countries Canada does have a relatively high Gini index of 0.32.
Nice post. Here’s a thought, but how do these numbers account for those that get future pensions? It is a questions I rarely see brought up or discussed. Many public servants will end up with these types of pensions as will many unionized groups. Their net worth’s would be calculated as low, but future income flow will still be there. Statistics are important to spin the numbers for bias opinion, trust me I worked with them for many years. The key to knowing whether or not you are doing okay or are on track, is that you are living on less than you have coming in. Do this for your entire life and bank any difference for any unforeseen, but statistically present emergencies, and you will live a comfortable life. – Cheers.
Yeah, those pensions can be hard to calculate a present day value for. Same goes for life annuities plans. I like the idea of living on less than you’re making. If only our governments can do the same :0)
they should publish net worth numbers ex-primary residence. it would 1, remove some regional difference due to real estate pricing variation, and 2. remove a relatively hard to access portion of the net worth. also would be helpful to see how much people would be affected by a real estate down turn.
ie: one Vancouver real estate couple recently in the news not only both worked in RE, but had almost all their net worth tied up in RE, including their primary residence, and 1 or 2 investment properties, that were cash flow negative! even if they were at the national average, thats a very low quality net worth
ps: that picture is so true. my friend and i always say, whoever said “money cant buy happiness” obviously just didnt have enough money! LOL
Yup, that would give a better picture of our finances. It’s hard for someone to spend their kitchen. Roughly 1/3rd of my own net worth is tied up in my primary residence, so I guess I fit the mold of being a Canadian, with lots of money on paper, but not a lot to spend lol. Sounds like that couple you described needs to learn some lessons about free cash flow. If I were them, I’d allocate more money into stocks rather than the Vancouver RE market :0)
Good stuff mate! I didn’t see this before I wrote mine. It really is awesome how wealthy everybody is becoming.
Let the good times roll!
Global wealth is growing at about 7% a year. I think as long as working people make it an effort to grow their net worth by at least that much then they will at least be financially better off, relative to the rest of the world （＾－＾）