High-income Canadians, 2023
Released: 2025-10-31
$606,000
2023
0.6% 
(annual change)
From 2022 to 2023, the inflation-adjusted average income declined among the top 1% of Canadians with the highest incomes. Average income of this population edged down 0.6% to $606,000 in 2023, while that of filers in the top 0.1% group declined 1.0% to $2,131,900.
The cutoff to be included in the top 1% of the total income distribution was $293,800 in 2023. Canadian tax filers in the top 0.1% of the distribution earned $930,100 or above, while those in the top 0.01% earned $3,487,600 or above.
Canadians in most income groups saw their average income decrease in 2023. Average income of Canadian tax filers, adjusted for inflation, edged down 0.3% in 2023 to $59,900, following a 3.2% decrease in 2022.
Continuing adjustments to the Canadian economy in the post-COVID-19 pandemic period, including slower growth in gross domestic product, rapid population growth—driven by a large increase in non-permanent residents—and an inflation rate of 3.9%, affected incomes in 2023.
One exception was among Canadians in the top 0.01% of the income distribution; their average income edged up by 0.2% in 2023 to $7,743,100.
Despite the declines seen in 2022 and 2023, inflation-adjusted average income remained higher in 2023 for all income groups than in 2019, pre-pandemic.
More women in the top income groups
The share of women in the top 1% of tax filers rose 0.8 percentage points from one year earlier to 26.4% in 2023. As well, these women saw their average income increase by 0.4% to $547,500. Meanwhile, men in the top 1% saw their average income decrease 0.8% to $627,000.
Women also saw their share of the top 0.1% of tax filers rise, up from 19.1% in 2022 to 20.7% in 2023. The average income of women in this group decreased by 1.6% to $1,955,100 in 2023. Men in the top 0.1% also saw their average income decline over the same period, down 0.7% to $2,178,000.
Top 0.01% earners derive more income from investments, dividends and other income in 2023
In 2023, aggregate wages and salaries accounted for two-thirds (66.6%) of the total income of filers overall (Chart 1). Tax filers in the top income groups have derived a smaller proportion of their total income from wages since the beginning of the data series in 1982. That proportion decreased since 2016 despite a rebound in 2021 and 2022.
Chart 1
Percentage of total income from wages and salaries by income group, 1982 to 2023
From 2016 to 2023, income from wages and salaries as a proportion of total income for the top 0.01% fell from 67.3% to 50.8%. The other top income groups also saw declines, from 63.0% to 55.0% for the top 0.1% and from 64.3% to 61.5% for the top 1%.
In contrast, the proportion of total income derived from wages and salaries changed relatively little for tax filers in the bottom 99% from 2016 to 2023, from 66.8% to 67.1%.
Dividends, interest and tax-defined other income represented a larger portion of income for the top income groups in 2023 than in 2022. These three sources accounted for 43.8% of the total income for the top 0.01% group in 2023, 35.4% for the top 0.1% and 26.4% for the top 1% (Table 3). For the bottom 99% of filers, these sources accounted for 6.4% of total income. The strength of the financial markets explains in part the higher dividend and interest income in 2023.
Persistence of high income
The persistence rate shows the percentage of people who stay in the same income group in the following years. The one-year high-income persistence rate can be defined as the proportion of high-income people in 2023 who were also part of the top 1% in 2022 (i.e., high-income over two consecutive years).
After gradually declining from 2019 to 2022, the one-year persistence rate for the top 1% rose to 70.9% in 2023 (+1.8 percentage points). Despite this increase, it remained lower than the average rate of the last 40 years (71.0%). For more context, the highest rate recorded since 1982 was 74.2% in 2004 and the lowest was 65.4% in 1987.
The one-year persistence rate of filers in the top 1% in Canada was highest in Ontario (72.5%) in 2023. The one-year persistence rate for the territories saw a significant increase, rising from 54.6% in 2022 to 60.2% in 2023, but was more than 10 percentage points below the national average.
To increase efficiency, Statistics Canada is combining two income data programs into one redesigned program: the T1 Family File Plus (T1FF+). The new T1FF+ will fully replace the T1 Family File (T1FF) and the Administrative Personal Income Masterfile. The Longitudinal Administrative Databank (LAD), currently based on the T1FF, will become a product derived from T1FF+.
The LAD data release for the 2024 reference year will be delayed by four to six months, from fall 2026 to spring 2027. This will impact products such as microdata files available in the Research Data Centre, web tables and custom tabulations produced from the LAD.
Note to readers
Data for 2023 have been added to the Longitudinal Administrative Databank (LAD). This databank now spans 42 years (1982 to 2023) and contains anonymized information about tax filers and their census family.
The LAD consists of a 20% longitudinal sample of Canadian tax filers and provides researchers and analysts with a tool for studying the changes in income of individuals and their families. It also contains a wide variety of income and demographic variables, and its large sample size ensures reliable data for Canada, the provinces, the territories, census metropolitan areas and some sub-provincial regions.
All dollar figures in this release are expressed in 2023 constant dollars unless otherwise noted.
Total income consists of income from earnings, investments, pensions, spousal support payments and other taxable income plus government transfers and refundable tax credits.
Tax-defined other income corresponds to line 13000 of the T1 form, which includes incomes not declared elsewhere on the tax form. It may include income such as payments from a trust, certain annuity payments, certain payments from a tax-free savings account, certain amounts from a registered retirement income fund and some retiring allowances.
As not all individuals file income tax returns and a small share of tax filers die each year, statistics presented here should be interpreted in the context of living tax filers on December 31, 2023.
Products
The Longitudinal Administrative Data Dictionary (12-585-X) contains a description for each of the income and demographic variables in the Longitudinal Administrative Databank (LAD), including name, acronym, definition, source, historical availability and historical continuity.
Derived from the LAD, data tables for 1982 to 2021 on Canadian tax filers with high incomes (11-10-0055-01 and 11-10-0056-01), the low-income dynamics (11-10-0024-01, 11-10-0025-01 and 11-10-0026-01), the family income mobility of Canadian tax filers (11-10-0059-01 and 11-10-0061-01) and effective tax rates (11-10-0054-01 and 11-10-0058-01) are now available for various provinces and selected census metropolitan areas.
The Income, pensions, spending and wealth portal, which is accessible from the Subjects module of the Statistics Canada website, provides users with a single point of access to a wide variety of information related to revenue, pensions, spending and wealth.
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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