National balance sheet and financial flow accounts, third quarter 2025
Released: 2025-12-11
$19.4 trillion
Third quarter 2025
0.0%
(quarterly change)
$33.5 billion
Third quarter 2025
-$1.0 billion 
(quarterly change)
$18.4 trillion
Third quarter 2025
2.6% 
(quarterly change)
14.64%
Third quarter 2025
-0.04
(quarterly change)
Household net worth rises on equity market momentum
Canadian households accumulated financial wealth in the third quarter of 2025, as their net worth—the value of all assets minus all liabilities—increased by almost a half-trillion dollars (+$460.5 billion; +2.6%) to reach $18,394.1 billion, the eighth consecutive quarterly increase and the largest increase since the first quarter of 2024. Households further improved their financial position in the third quarter of 2025 as gross domestic product rebounded, interest rates eased, and global trade uncertainty persisted. However, these gains were likely not evenly distributed among households as the wealthiest (top 20% of the wealth distribution) hold nearly 70% of all financial assets and are therefore best positioned to benefit from accruing investment incomes and gains from revaluation when markets perform well.
Overall, households' financial assets jumped 4.8% (+$532.4 billion) in the third quarter of 2025 to $11,676.1 billion, gaining steam following a 2.3% rise in the second quarter as equity markets continued to rally amid economic uncertainty. The S&P/TSX Composite Index increased by the largest margin (+11.8%) since the second quarter of 2020. Similarly, the S&P 500 Index grew 7.8% in the third quarter of 2025 and a depreciating Canadian dollar helped further boost foreign-denominated assets. Over the second and third quarters of 2025, the S&P 500 has expanded 19.2%, while the S&P/TSX Composite Index jumped 20.5%.
Partially offsetting financial asset gains, household liabilities—composed primarily of mortgage and non-mortgage debt—increased $40.8 billion (+1.3%) in the third quarter of 2025. Overall, households' net financial assets—defined as financial assets minus liabilities—registered the largest increase on record (+$491.6 billion).
Contrary to financial assets, the value of non-financial assets edged down (-0.3%) in the third quarter, pulled lower by a $53.4 billion decline (-0.6%) in residential real estate. The ratio of financial assets to non-financial assets reached its highest point (117.3%) since the end of 2019, supported by stronger financial asset valuations, while housing affordability, as measured by real estate as a percentage of household disposable income (488.1%), declined for the sixth straight quarter. Real estate wealth is more evenly distributed among households than financial assets, such that shifts in wealth resulting from changes in property values are shared more equally.
Highlights
Real gross domestic product increased 0.6% in the third quarter of 2025, driven by a strengthening trade balance, but dampened by weaker final consumption expenditures as final demand edged down and the Canadian dollar depreciated against the US dollar.
The Bank of Canada continued to shrink its balance sheet, allowing bond assets to mature without replacement, while also lowering the policy interest rate a quarter of a percentage point to 2.5% in September, after holding the rate steady in the second quarter. Consumer expectations improved slightly in the third quarter while concerns surrounding the trade conflict and a more sluggish labour market persisted.
The household saving rate ticked up to 4.7% in the third quarter of 2025 as disposable income slightly outpaced nominal household spending. However, higher valuations were the main contributors to the fastest growth in household financial assets (+4.8%) since the second quarter of 2020, concentrated in equities and investment funds, and life insurance and pensions. Households improved their financial situation in the third quarter of 2025, in terms of their debt-to-asset and debt service ratios, which both fell.
Federal government borrowing continued to slow in the third quarter, while benefiting from a lower effective interest rate. At the same time, institutional investors' demand for federal bonds remained elevated and provincial governments increased their debt levels.
Chart 1
Change in household net worth by component
Households acquire mutual funds amid slower accumulation of currency and deposits
The household saving rate (seasonally adjusted) edged up to 4.7% in the third quarter of 2025 as disposable income (+0.8%) outpaced nominal household spending (+0.7%). Households' net acquisitions of mutual fund shares rose to $39.3 billion, extending a trend of elevated purchases of mutual funds dating back to the third quarter of 2024. Households added $7.5 billion in currency and deposits in the third quarter of 2025, the slowest build-up since the first quarter of 2021 (+$5.5 billion); preferences continued to shift away from fixed term deposits as interest rates eased.
Residential real estate slips despite uptick in market activity
The value of household residential real estate dipped 0.6% to $8,499.4 billion in the third quarter of 2025, as the average resale home price fell to just below $673,000 in the third quarter from roughly $688,000 in the second quarter. In contrast, there were 8.3% more housing resales in the third quarter, on a seasonally adjusted basis, compared with the second quarter. Declining mortgage rates paired with lower prices may have helped bolster resale activity.
Elevated sales volumes led to higher ownership transfer costs (+9.1%) on a seasonally adjusted real dollar basis in the third quarter. Meanwhile, residential renovations increased 1.2% and new construction declined 0.8%, as work put in place for apartments decreased.
Household borrowing softens
The pace of household credit market borrowing (seasonally adjusted) eased to $33.5 billion in the third quarter of 2025. From the fourth quarter of 2024 to the third quarter of 2025, households have borrowed $142.1 billion in credit market debt, compared with $123.7 billion from the fourth quarter of 2023 to the third quarter of 2024.
Mortgage demand dropped to $23.4 billion in the third quarter of 2025, while the demand for non-mortgage debt (including consumer credit) increased to $10.1 billion as consumer credit borrowing climbed for the second consecutive quarter to reach $7.0 billion in the third quarter.
Chart 2
Household credit market debt, seasonally adjusted flows
Household credit market debt continues to outpace income growth
The seasonally adjusted stock of household credit market debt (consumer credit, and mortgage and non-mortgage loans) expanded 1.0%, nearing $3.2 trillion in the third quarter of 2025, with mortgages accounting for almost 75% of this total.
The ratio of household credit market debt as a proportion of household disposable income rose for the fourth consecutive quarter, up 0.4 percentage points to 176.7% in the third quarter as debt continued to grow faster than income. In other words, there was $1.77 in credit market debt for every dollar of household disposable income in the third quarter, lower than the record $1.88 in the third quarter of 2022.
Chart 3
Household credit market debt to household disposable income, seasonally adjusted
Household debt service ratio falls
The household debt service ratio—measured as total obligated payments of principal and interest on credit market debt as a proportion of household disposable income—dropped from 14.68% (revised up from 14.41%) to 14.64% in the third quarter of 2025. Declining mortgage interest payments (-0.9%) in the third quarter were more than offset by obligated principal payments (+2.1%). According to the Bank of Canada's most recent housing affordability index, housing affordability improved in every quarter from the fourth quarter of 2023 to the second quarter of 2025.
Chart 4
Household debt service ratio
Federal government borrowing declines
The federal government's demand for funds—defined as the net issuance of treasuries and bonds and new borrowing less repayments of loans—was $27.7 billion in the third quarter of 2025, down from $36.7 billion in the second quarter. Institutional investors purchased $27.6 billion in federal bonds (net basis) in the third quarter on either primary or secondary markets, representing their fourth largest purchase of these bonds, yet still below the record levels set in the first two quarters of 2025. Non-residents also purchased the largest amount of federal paper (net) since the second quarter of 2023, the third largest net purchase on record. The effective interest rate on federal government debt dropped 4 basis points lower to 2.96% (annual rates) in the third quarter of 2025.
The federal government's net financial liabilities as a share of gross domestic product (GDP), which measures the remaining value of nominal liabilities after deducting financial assets at market value (i.e., sale price), ticked up to 32.8% in the third quarter of 2025, while the ratio for other levels of government rose to 15.2% as provincial governments demanded $20.7 billion in funds, primarily in the form of bonds. Meanwhile, total government gross debt per capita reached $98,491 in the third quarter of 2025; by comparison, nominal GDP per capita stood at $78,159.
Chart 5
Government net financial liabilities as a percentage of gross domestic product
Private non-financial corporations' borrowing moderates
Private non-financial corporations' demand for credit market debt slowed from $47.4 billion in the second quarter of 2025 to $15.1 billion in the third quarter, as share buy-backs persisted, serving as an alternative to dividends to return capital to shareholders. The debt-to-equity ratio of private non-financial corporations continued to trend down, settling at 64.4% in the third quarter of 2025. Overall, non-financial corporations' ratio of credit market debt to GDP edged up to 71.85%, while their effective interest cost held firm at 3.88% (annual rates).
Chart 6
Demand for funds by private non-financial corporations
National net worth holds steady
National net worth, the sum of national wealth and Canada's net foreign asset position, stood at $19,382.4 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2025. There was a small improvement in Canada's international investment position (+$95.3 billion) as international financial assets were up by $690.0 billion (+6.6%), the highest quarterly increase on record.
Moderating the gains in Canada's net foreign asset position, the total value of non-financial assets in Canada—also referred to as national wealth—dipped to $17,456.7 billion (-$92.7 billion) in the third quarter; however, from the fourth quarter of 2024 to the third quarter of 2025, national wealth has grown by $408.7 billion.
Chart 7
Change in national net worth by component
Focus on Canada and the United States: A Debt Divergence
In 2015, Statistics Canada published an article regarding a reconciliation between Canadian-U.S. measures of household disposable income and household debt. The article explained the steps required to build comparable measures of both key household indicators. This was noteworthy as it highlighted that US households consistently registered a higher ratio of debt to disposable income than Canada during the period from 1990 to 2010. As seen in chart 8, beginning in 2011, Canada's ratio surpassed that of the United States and has continued to outpace that of the United States, whose households' borrowing became more aligned with their incomes. Furthermore, Canadian households reached a higher peak ratio of 174.13% in the third quarter of 2022, compared with the high set in the United States (170.25%) in the fourth quarter of 2007 at the outset of the Great Recession. As of the second quarter of 2025, the United States' ratio of debt to disposable income was 123.67%, while Canada's ratio sat at 161.66%.
For more data and insights on areas touched by the socio-economic relationship between Canada and the United States, see the Focus on Canada and the United States webpage.
Chart 8
Household credit market debt to disposable income
Note to readers
Revisions
Data enhancements to the national balance sheet and financial flow accounts will be incorporated on an ongoing basis. To facilitate this initiative as well as others, it is necessary to extend the annual revision period (normally the previous three years) at the time of the third quarter release. Consequently, with this release of the national balance sheet and financial flow accounts for the third quarter of 2025, data were revised back to 1999 to incorporate improvements and ensure a continuous time series. These data incorporate new and revised data, as well as updated data on seasonal trends.
Details on these revisions are available in "An overview of the revisions to the Financial and Wealth Accounts, 1999 to 2025."
General
Unless otherwise stated, growth rates represent the percentage change in the series from one quarter to the next; for instance, from the second quarter to the third quarter of 2025.
Unless otherwise stated, distributional information from the Distributions of Household Economic Accounts program is from the previous quarter. For this third quarter release of the national balance sheet and financial flow accounts, that would be the second quarter of 2025.
Unless otherwise stated, this release presents data unadjusted for seasonality.
Upcoming changes to the Financial and Wealth Accounts
Continuous efforts to streamline and improve the production of the Financial and Wealth Accounts will reach a milestone in 2026 as a new compilation system will be adopted. This system relies on the same logic and accounting concepts that are the foundation of the current system but standardizes nomenclature and simplifies key aspects of the compilation. While this behind-the-scenes change will be largely transparent for users as classifications and series vectors will remain the same, it is important to maintain the production pipelines in which macroeconomic statistics are compiled to ensure efficacy, flexibility, transparency, and quality. As a result of this system update, there will be changes to time series outside the usual revision window resulting from improvements to how data is compiled. Details on significant changes will be provided to users at the time of this adoption.
Financial and wealth accounts on a from-whom-to-whom basis: Selected financial instruments
The data visualization product "Financial accounts on a from-whom-to-whom basis, selected financial instruments" has been updated with data from the first quarter of 1999 to the third quarter of 2025. Additionally, the entire from-whom-to-whom data set can now be easily downloaded by navigating to the Notes tab and selecting the desired file under the Data heading.
Next release
Data on the national balance sheet and financial flow accounts for the fourth quarter of 2025 will be released on March 16, 2026.
Overview of the financial and wealth accounts
This release of the financial and wealth accounts comprises the national balance sheet accounts (NBSA), the financial flow accounts (FFA), and the other changes in assets account.
The NBSA are composed of the balance sheets of all sectors and subsectors of the economy. The main sectors are households, non-profit institutions serving households, financial corporations, non-financial corporations, government, and non-residents. The NBSA cover all national non-financial assets and all financial asset-liability claims outstanding in all sectors. To improve the interpretability of financial flows data, selected household borrowing series are available on a seasonally adjusted basis (table 38-10-0238-01). All other data are unadjusted for seasonal variation. For information on seasonal adjustment, see Seasonally adjusted data – Frequently asked questions.
The FFA articulate net lending or borrowing activity by sector by measuring financial transactions in the economy. The FFA arrive at a measure of net financial investment, which is the difference between transactions in financial assets and liabilities (for example, net purchases of securities less net issuances of securities). The FFA also provide the link between financial and non-financial activity in the economy, which ties estimates of saving and non-financial capital acquisition (for example, investment in new housing) to the underlying financial transactions.
While the FFA record changes in financial assets and liabilities between opening and closing balance sheets that are associated with transactions during the accounting period, the value of assets and liabilities held by an institution can also change for other reasons. These other types of changes, referred to as other economic flows, are recorded in the other changes in assets account.
There are two main components to this account. One is the other changes in the volume of assets account. This account includes changes in non-financial and financial assets and liabilities relating to the economic appearance and disappearance of assets, the effects of external events such as wars or catastrophes on the value of assets, and changes in the classification and structure of assets. The other main component is the revaluation account, showing holding gains or losses accruing to the owners of non-financial and financial assets and liabilities during the accounting period as a result of changes in market price valuations.
At present, only the aggregate other change in assets is available within the Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts; no details are available on the different components.
Definitions concerning financial indicators can be found in "Financial indicators from the National Balance Sheet Accounts" and in the Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts glossary.
Distributions of household economic accounts
The NBSA for the household sector is allocated across a number of socio-economic dimensions as part of the distributions of household economic accounts. Data on wealth and its components by income quintile, age group, generation and region are available in tables 36-10-0585-01, 36-10-0586-01, 36-10-0589-01, and 36-10-0590-01.
The methodology for Distributions of household economic accounts wealth estimates can be found in the article "Distributions of Household Economic Accounts, estimates of asset, liability and net worth distributions, 2010 to 2024, technical methodology and quality report."
Products
The document, "An overview of the revisions to the Financial and Wealth Accounts, 1999 to 2025," which is part of Latest Developments in the Canadian Economic Accounts (13-605-X), is now available.
The data visualization product "Financial accounts on a from-whom-to-whom basis, selected financial instruments," which is part of Statistics Canada – Data Visualization Products (71-607-X), is now available.
As a complement to this release, you can also consult the data visualization product "Distributions of Household Economic Accounts, Wealth: Interactive tool," which is part of Statistics Canada – Data Visualization Products (71-607-X).
As a complement to this release, you can also consult the data visualization product "Securities statistics," which is part of Statistics Canada – Data Visualization Products (71-607-X).
The Economic accounts statistics portal, accessible from the Subjects module of the Statistics Canada website, features an up-to-date portrait of national and provincial economies and their structure.
The User Guide: Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts (13-606-G) is available.
The Methodological Guide: Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts (13-607-X) is available.
The Canada: Economic and Financial Data - International Monetary Fund's Special Data Dissemination Standard Plus product (13-608-X), "Other Financial Corporations Survey," also known as "Assets and liabilities of other financial corporations by sector, market value, quarterly" (table 36-10-0668-01), are available.
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).
- Date modified: