The gap between Canada’s richest and poorest widened last year as financial markets gained while interest payments fell and the labor market softened, Statistics Canada said Monday.
The agency says the income gap, measuring the difference in the share of disposable income between households in the top 40 percent and those in the bottom 40 percent, reached 46.7 percentage points in 2025.
The result compared to a gap of 46.4 percentage points a year ago.
The biggest gap came as lower-income households saw wages grow more slowly than the overall average and saw their investment income fall because of lower interest payments on savings, the agency said.
Meanwhile, Statistics Canada says the top 20 percent of the wealth distribution accounts for 65.7 percent of Canada’s total net worth at the end of 2025, an average of $3.5 million per household.
In contrast, the bottom 40 per cent of the wealth distribution owned three per cent of Canada’s net worth, an average of $81,650 per household.
The wealth gap between the top 20 percent and the bottom 40 percent was 62.7 percentage points at the end of 2025, up 0.6 percentage points from a year earlier.
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Insolvency practice MNP Ltd. said on Monday that the growing divide could also be seen in financial surveys, although he also pointed to signs of overall stability.
He said his survey-based debt index has held steady over the past year as Canadians have become more cautious about spending, but that financial pressures remain uneven.
The average amount Canadians have left at the end of the month hit an all-time high of $1,000, up from $907 at the end of November.
The results, however, also showed that 43 percent are within $200 or less of not being able to meet their monthly spending needs, up from 41 percent last quarter. Twenty-nine percent say they are already not making enough to cover bills and debt payments, up from 25 percent.
The poll of 2,000 Canadian adults between March 10 and 11 was completed by Ipsos and is considered accurate to within 2.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
The firm’s survey shows that many Canadians are holding back on major financial decisions and that nearly three-quarters say rising prices for essentials are straining their finances.
“Many Canadians are not only feeling financial pressure, they are navigating an environment that continues to change, increasing uncertainty and making it more difficult to plan, budget and stay ahead financially,” said Grant Bazian, president of MNP Ltd., in a press release.
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