Distributions of household economic accounts for income, consumption, saving and wealth of Canadian households, fourth quarter 2024
Released: 2025-04-14
Highest income households increased their share of income through investment growth while lower income households' wages declined in 2024. Easing borrowing costs and slower inflation supported economic well-being for lower income and the least wealthy households.
Income gap increases in recent years, but pace of growth slows
The income gap—defined as the difference in the share of disposable income between households in the top 40% and the bottom 40% of the income distribution—reached a high of 47.1 percentage points in 2024. The income gap increased each year following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when a low of 39.7 percentage points was recorded in 2020. The pace of growth in the income gap recently slowed, increasing by 0.5 percentage points in 2024 compared with 2.0 percentage points in 2022 and 2023.
Households' ability to maintain their economic well-being varies with changing macroeconomic conditions. In contrast to prevailing high interest rates in 2023, the Bank of Canada reduced its policy rate throughout 2024, from 5.0% in January to 3.25% in December in response to easing inflationary pressures. As a result, household interest payments grew by 9.0% in 2024, a much lower rate than in 2023 when interest payments grew by 52.8% relative to a year earlier. In tandem with easing interest rates, as noted in the latest release of estimates for gross domestic product, labour market conditions weakened in 2024 as overall wage earnings grew at the "slowest annual pace since the COVID-19 pandemic-induced shutdowns in 2020."
While declining interest rates can lead to easing borrowing costs for households, they can also lead to lower yields on interest-bearing investments such as savings and deposit accounts. Although lower income households are more likely to benefit from declining interest rates as they tend to be more indebted relative to higher income households, they also tend to have less diversified investment portfolios that focus on interest-bearing instruments rather than other forms of investments such as equities. Lower income households also tend to be more susceptible to job loss during economic downturns.
The lowest income households (bottom 20% of the income distribution) had the weakest growth in disposable income in 2024 relative to a year earlier (+3.6%), as they were the only group in which average wages fell (-$391 or -3.3%). Labour market conditions were notably weak for people working in the manufacturing and transport sectors.
From 2023 to 2024, households in the middle 60% of the income distribution increased their income at a similar pace (+5.4%) as the average for all households (+5.5%). In contrast with the lowest income households, who were negatively affected by weaker labour market conditions, wages were the key driver of income gains for middle-income households (+5.7% vs. +3.9% for all households).
In 2024, disposable income for the highest income households (top 20% of the income distribution) increased at a faster pace than the average for all households relative to a year earlier (+5.9%), as growth in investment income was seven times higher than the increase in interest paid.
Net saving improves most for middle income households but worsens for lowest income
The lowest income households increased their net dis-saving by 2.7% in 2024 as income gains did not keep pace with increases in the cost of living, especially for housing and utilities. Net saving for households in the lowest income quintile was mainly affected by lower average wages combined with higher interest payments, which served to limit income growth relative to consumption.
Net dis-saving for middle income households improved the most (-22.7%) relative to other households as their disposable income grew at more than double the pace (+6.3%) of consumption (+3.1%), due mainly to strong wage gains. Households in the top 20% of the income distribution (+10.5%) grew their net saving at an above-average pace in 2024. In contrast with prior years, reductions in spending occurred for several consumption categories in 2024, including alcoholic beverages and tobacco, clothing and footwear, as well as furnishings and household equipment.
Wealth gap stabilizes along with declining interest rates and increasing real estate values
Most wealth is held by relatively few households in Canada. The wealthiest (top 20% of the wealth distribution) accounted for almost two-thirds (64.8%) of Canada's total net worth in the fourth quarter of 2024, averaging $3.3 million per household, while the least wealthy (bottom 40% of the wealth distribution) accounted for 3.3%, averaging $84,600. Increases in overall household net worth (+5.8%) were derived from a combination of factors, most notably through gains in the average value of financial assets (+9.5%) and real estate (+0.9%).
The gap in wealth between the top 20% and the bottom 40% reached 61.5 percentage points in the fourth quarter of 2024, unchanged from the same quarter a year earlier, as the finances of the least wealthy households were supported by declining interest rates, easing inflationary pressures and increasing real estate values.
Least wealthy increase net worth the most as gains in real estate holdings outweigh debt
The least wealthy increased their net worth at the fastest pace relative to other households (+8.8%) as they benefitted from a combination of above average gains in real estate (+4.5%) and average growth in financial assets (+9.2%). Lower wealth households increased their real estate values for various reasons, such as through home purchases or by benefitting from general increases in home prices. In contrast, gains in net worth for the wealthiest households were derived only from financial assets (+9.9%), while the average value of their real estate was relatively unchanged (-0.4%).
Along with easing interest rates and more affordable home prices, wealth gains for the least wealthy were mainly derived from those buying or owning a home in the fourth quarter of 2024 as the increase in mortgage debt to finance those assets (+$3,177) was less than the increase in the value of their real estate holdings (+$4,879).
This is in stark contrast to a few years ago, when the wealth gap increased as the more prohibitive cost of mortgage financing outweighed the benefit of owning a home. On average, the least wealthy were less able to engage in the housing market from 2022 to 2023 amid rising interest rates and peak home prices that made owning a home less affordable.
Youngest households decrease mortgage debt, while that of older households increases
The youngest households—those under the age of 35 years—were the only age group to continually decrease their mortgage debt since the end of 2022, as rising interest rates and housing cost pressures made home ownership less affordable. Average mortgage debt for the youngest households continued its declining trend, albeit at a slower pace, as the year-over-year decrease for the fourth quarter of 2024 (-4.7%) was less than for the fourth quarter of 2023 (-5.2%).
Households in the youngest age group may be reducing their mortgage balances for various reasons. Prospective homeowners may be turning away from the housing market due to affordability concerns, while existing homeowners who purchased a home when interest rates were much lower from 2020 to 2022 may be paying off their existing mortgage debt balances or moving into more affordable accommodations. As well, the youngest households may be receiving financial support from family to help them cope with the cost of living and reduce their debt obligations.
Older age groups increased their average mortgage debt in the fourth quarter of 2024 relative to a year earlier, including households aged 55 to 64 years (+7.7%) and households aged 65 years and older (+8.3%). Older age groups may be increasing their mortgage debt for various reasons, such as to buy an investment property, to assist younger relatives with the purchase of a home, or for a range of other reasons.
Younger age group reduces debt-to-income ratio the most
The debt-to-income ratio declined or was stable for all age groups as income gains, mainly due to wages and investment income, exceeded debt increases. Households with a major income earner aged 35 to 44 years had the highest debt-to-income ratio of any age group, at 238.2% in the fourth quarter of 2024, down from 245.1% a year earlier, while those under 35 years of age decreased their ratio from 175.3% to 160.8%. Households aged 65 years and older held their ratio relatively constant as they benefitted from higher investment earnings.
Households across age groups hold debt service ratios stable for first time in three years
An alternative indicator of household financial risk is the interest-only debt service ratio (DSR), which is based on the value of total interest payments on credit market debt as a share of disposable income. The interest-only DSR stabilized for the first time in three years for households in all age groups, including younger households, which tend to be more indebted. For example, the interest-only DSR of households aged 35 to 44 years (11.8%) and of households aged less than 35 years (10.3%) was stable relative to a year earlier.
Along with easing affordability pressures at the end of 2024, these data indicate that, on average, middle-income and lower wealth households are finding ways to improve their net saving, net worth and debt-to-income ratios. The latest figures up to January 2025 from the Monthly Credit Aggregates program indicate that, along with declining lending rates, households are building their wealth through accelerating investments in home ownership.
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Sustainable Development Goals
On January 1, 2016, the world officially began implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development—the United Nations' transformative plan of action that addresses urgent global challenges over the next 15 years. The plan is based on 17 specific sustainable development goals.
The distributions of household economic accounts for income, consumption, saving and wealth of Canadian households are an example of how Statistics Canada supports the reporting on the Global Goals for Sustainable Development. This release will be used in helping to measure the following goal:

Note to readers
Statistics Canada regularly publishes macroeconomic indicators on household disposable income, final consumption expenditure, saving and wealth as part of the Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts (CSMA). These accounts are aligned with the most recent international standards and are compiled for all sectors of the economy, including households, non-profit institutions, governments and corporations along with Canada's financial position vis-à-vis the rest of the world. While the CSMA provide high quality information on the overall position of households relative to other economic sectors, the Distributions of Household Economic Accounts (DHEA) provide additional granularity to address questions such as vulnerabilities of specific groups and the resulting implications for economic well-being and financial stability. These estimates are an important complement to standard quarterly outputs related to the economy.
The DHEA estimates released today provide estimates of income, consumption, saving and wealth, including their sub-components by various household distributions for the fourth quarter of 2024. Estimates have also been revised for prior periods to incorporate the latest CSMA benchmarks, including revisions back to the first quarter of 2024.
With this release, estimates of household actual final consumption and adjusted household disposable income are now available for 2024, and include revisions for 2021 to 2023 to incorporate the latest information from various data inputs.
This release also incorporates estimates of payments made to households in the third and fourth quarters of 2024 as part of the Robinson Huron Treaty settlement .
The term "income gap", referred to in this text, is defined as the gap in the share of disposable income between households in the top 40% and bottom 40% of the income distribution. The "wealth gap" is defined as the gap in the share of net worth between households in the top 20% and bottom 40% of the wealth distribution. Estimates for net worth distributed by wealth quintile are combined for households in the lowest two quintiles for ease of illustration, since the average household in the lowest wealth quintile owed more in liabilities than it owned in assets, such as self-employed workers with negative net business equity and recent graduates with student loan balances.
As with all data, the DHEA estimates are not without their limitations. While some distributions are estimated using timely microdata or micromodels, such as wages and salaries and household debt, other distributions, including those for household final consumption expenditures, social transfers in kind and assets rely on assumptions or use data from prior reference periods. Users should keep these limitations in mind when analyzing the estimates included in this release.
All values are expressed in nominal unadjusted rates. As a result, the estimates presented in this release are not adjusted for variations over time that may occur due to seasonal patterns and/or price inflation. Since the quarterly series are not seasonally adjusted, comparisons should only be made using estimates for the same quarter of each year.
Next release
Data on the Distributions of Household Economic Accounts for the first quarter of 2025 will be released on July 16.
Products
The data visualization product "Distributions of Household Economic Accounts, Wealth: Interactive tool," which is part of Statistics Canada – Data Visualization Products (), is available. 71-607-X
The article "Distributions of Household Economic Accounts, estimates of asset, liability and net worth distributions, 2010 to 2024, technical methodology and quality report," which is part of the Income and Expenditure Accounts Technical Series (), is also available. 13-604-M
Details on the sources and methods behind these estimates can be found in Methodological Guide: Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts (). See section " 13-607-XDistributions of Household Economic Accounts" under Satellite Accounts and Special Studies.
The Economic accounts statistics portal, accessible from the Subjects module of our website, features an up-to-date portrait of national and provincial economies and their structure.
The Latest Developments in the Canadian Economic Accounts () is available. 13-605-X
The User Guide: Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts () is available. 13-606-G
Contact information
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