National balance sheet and financial flow accounts, fourth quarter 2025
Released: 2026-03-16
$19.3 trillion
Fourth quarter 2025
0.0%
(quarterly change)
$36.2 billion
Fourth quarter 2025
-$1.2 billion 
(quarterly change)
$18.6 trillion
Fourth quarter 2025
1.3% 
(quarterly change)
14.57%
Fourth quarter 2025
-0.04
(quarterly change)
Household net worth grows amid softer housing market
Canadian households continued to accumulate financial wealth in the fourth quarter of 2025, as their net worth—the value of all assets minus all liabilities—increased by $230.2 billion to reach $18,594.9 billion, continuing a string of gains that began at the end of 2023. Over 2025, households added more than $1 trillion (+5.8%) in wealth, largely because of appreciating financial assets, which grew 10.5% year-over-year.
Among domestic equity markets, the S&P/TSX Composite Index increased by 5.6% in the fourth quarter of 2025, closing out the year 28.2% higher than its 2024 year-end level, the largest annual increase since 2009. By comparison, the S&P 500 Index, a key foreign equity market index, grew a more tepid 2.4% in the fourth quarter of 2025, but nonetheless ended the year 16.4% higher on an annual basis. Altogether, financial market strength helped push households' financial assets 2.5% higher (+$296.9 billion) to $11,954.8 billion in the fourth quarter.
The gains in net worth were likely not evenly distributed among households as the wealthiest households (top 20% of the wealth distribution) accounted for almost two-thirds (65.5%) of Canada's total net worth in the third quarter, averaging $3.5 million per household. Meanwhile, the least wealthy households (bottom 40% of the wealth distribution) accounted for 3.1% of total net worth, averaging $82,100 per household.
On the other side of the ledger, household liabilities, composed primarily of mortgage and non-mortgage debt, increased $33.0 billion (+1.0%) in the fourth quarter. Overall, households' net financial assets—defined as financial assets minus liabilities—increased by $263.9 billion, which followed the largest increase on record (+$448.3 billion) in the third quarter.
Non-financial assets fell for a second consecutive quarter in the fourth quarter as the value of real estate declined once again. Meanwhile, the ratio of financial assets to non-financial assets climbed to 120.7%, its highest point in over two decades; the value of financial assets surpassed that of non-financial assets in the fourth quarter of 2023, and the gap has since widened.
Highlights
Real gross domestic product (GDP) decreased 0.2% in the fourth quarter of 2025, after rising 0.6% in the third quarter. Final demand was resilient in the fourth quarter, growing at 0.6% amid an appreciating Canadian dollar. Overall, real GDP increased 1.7% in 2025, the slowest pace of annual growth since the decline in 2020. The more restrained growth in GDP was primarily due to lower exports in 2025, particularly to the United States.
The Bank of Canada lowered the policy interest rate by 0.25 percentage points to 2.25% in October, marking the fourth rate cut of 2025. Despite a more accommodating interest rate environment, consumer expectations deteriorated modestly in the fourth quarter while concerns surrounding high prices and labour market conditions remained.
The household saving rate declined to 4.4% in the fourth quarter as disposable income lagged household spending. Canadian equity markets performed well in 2025, as the TSX outpaced its American counterpart, and households improved their financial situation in terms of their debt-to-asset and debt service ratios, both of which fell.
Federal government borrowing was elevated in 2025 and was met by the highest level of non-resident investor demand for federal bonds on record in the fourth quarter.
Chart 1
Change in household net worth by component
Household saving rate falls despite strong equity investment
The household saving rate (seasonally adjusted) fell to 4.4% in the fourth quarter of 2025 as growth in disposable income (+0.6%) lagged that in nominal household spending (+1.2%). Savings can be used to acquire assets or reduce liabilities. Strong reinvested earnings at year-end helped propel households' net acquisitions of mutual fund shares to a record $96.2 billion in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, gross sales outpaced gross redemptions. Households added $22.3 billion in currency and deposits in the fourth quarter, capping off a relatively sluggish year of currency and deposit growth (+1.9%); from 2021 to 2024, the value of currency and deposits rose by an annual average of 6.4%.
Residential real estate edges down as sales activity slows
The value of household residential real estate edged down 0.4% to $8,450.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, ending the year 0.2% lower than at the end of 2024. In terms of market activity, sales in the fourth quarter of 2025 were 8.9% lower than in the fourth quarter of 2024. Real estate as a proportion of household disposable income fell for the seventh consecutive quarter to 479.5% in the fourth quarter of 2025 as income growth has been set against weakening real estate valuations.
On a seasonally adjusted real dollar basis, residential investment declined in the fourth quarter, in part due to a reduction in ownership transfer costs (-2.4%). Despite the fourth quarter decline, business residential investment in 2025 increased on an annual basis for the first time since 2021, as new construction and renovations increased and ownership transfer costs fell.
Household borrowing moderates as consumer credit activity slows
The pace of seasonally adjusted household credit market borrowing (consumer credit, and mortgage and non-mortgage loans) eased slightly to $36.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025. At the same time, mortgage demand rose to $28.7 billion, while the demand for non-mortgage debt (including consumer credit) fell to $7.5 billion in the fourth quarter from $10.6 billion in the third quarter.
In 2025, higher demand for mortgage funds resulted in a total of $110.6 billion in household mortgage borrowing compared with $94.0 billion in 2024. At the same time, demand for non-mortgage debt eased in 2025, with total borrowing of $30.7 billion compared with $43.5 billion in 2024. Over that same period, consumer credit demand fell 23.7% year over year.
Chart 2
Household credit market debt, seasonally adjusted flows
Household credit market debt outpaces income for the fifth straight quarter
The seasonally adjusted stock of household credit market debt surpassed $3.2 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2025, ending the year 4.4% higher compared with the year prior. The ratio of household credit market debt as a proportion of household disposable income increased for the fifth consecutive quarter, climbing by 0.9 percentage points to 177.2% in the fourth quarter of 2025. In other words, there was $1.77 in credit market debt for every dollar of household disposable income. Although the ratio increased compared with the end of 2024 (174.8%), it has not reached the record level set in the third quarter of 2022 (188.2%).
Chart 3
Household credit market debt to household disposable income, seasonally adjusted
Household debt service burden continues to lessen
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—edged down to 14.57% in the fourth quarter of 2025 from 14.61% in the previous quarter, the second consecutive quarterly decrease. While mortgage interest payments declined (-0.6%) in the fourth quarter, obligated mortgage principal payments (+1.0%) rose for the seventh quarter in a row. The effective interest cost of both mortgage (4.16%; annual rates) and non-mortgage loans (8.44%; annual rates) eased in the fourth quarter.
Chart 4
Household debt service ratio
Public debt issuances persist
The federal government's demand for funds—defined as the net issuance of treasuries and bonds and new borrowing less repayments of loans—was $18.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, down from $27.7 billion in the third quarter. Demand in the fourth quarter was mainly comprised of the largest net issuance of federal bonds (+$47.8 billion dollars; long-term debt) coupled with the largest net retirement of treasury bills (-$29.6 billion dollars; short-term debt) since the first half of 2021. Non-residents purchased $33.6 billion in federal bonds in the fourth quarter of 2025, their largest quarterly acquisition on record, while posting the largest reduction in their holdings of federal paper.
In 2025, net borrowing reached $126.7 billion, predominantly in the form of bonds. The effective interest paid on the federal government's financial liabilities edged down to 2.88% (annual rates) in the fourth quarter. Institutional investors, which include pensions and mutual funds, purchased $11.0 billion in federal bonds (net basis) on primary and secondary markets in the fourth quarter, capping the strongest year on record in which they acquired, on a net basis, $110.1 billion in bonds; by comparison, institutional investors recorded net retirements of bonds (-$27.0 billion) in 2024.
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 33.0% in the fourth quarter of 2025. Meanwhile the ratio for other levels of government reached 15.5%, up from 14.7% in the third quarter, as provincial governments demanded $30.4 billion in funds in the fourth quarter of 2025. In both 2024 and 2025, all other levels of government (excluding federal) demanded over $80 billion in credit market debt.
Meanwhile, total government gross debt per capita crossed the six-figure mark to reach $100,929 in the fourth quarter of 2025; by comparison, nominal GDP per capita stood at $78,858.
Chart 5
Government net financial liabilities as a percentage of gross domestic product
Private non-financial corporations' debt to equity ratio continues to fall
Private non-financial corporation's demand for funds was $16.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025. Borrowing was mostly in the form of non-mortgage loans (+$16.3 billion) and bonds (+$16.7 billion). Listed share redemptions totalled $17.6 billion, the second-largest amount on record, only surpassed by the second quarter of 2023 (-$22.0 billion).
Since the end of 2020, private non-financial corporations have increased their non-mortgage loan liabilities by 43.3%, reaching $1,030.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025. However, growth in the Canadian economy has largely kept pace as the ratio of private non-financial corporations' credit market debt to GDP was 72.0% in the fourth quarter of 2025, below the 75.4% recorded in the first quarter of 2021. In the fourth quarter of 2025, private non-financial corporations' effective interest cost was nearly unchanged compared with the prior quarter, at 3.88% (annual rates), but has eased since the end of 2024 (4.08%).
Meanwhile, in the fourth quarter of 2025, the credit market debt-to-equity ratio (book value) of private non-financial corporations dropped to 58.3%. Since the first quarter of 2020, the debt-to-equity ratio (market value) has declined 39.1 percentage points as equity valuations have grown relative to corporate debt levels.
Chart 6
Demand for funds by private non-financial corporations
National net worth remains relatively stable
At the end of 2025, national net worth, the sum of national wealth and Canada's net foreign asset position, stood at $19,337.6 billion. A strong start in the first quarter of 2025 (+$199.6 billion) and a dip in the fourth quarter (-$21.7 billion) bookended the year. Canada's international investment position was the main contributor to the fourth quarter decline and reflected the weaker performance of foreign stock markets relative to the Canadian stock market, which increased the value of Canada's international liabilities in equity instruments by more than its international assets.
Canada's national wealth, defined as the total value of non-financial assets, was buoyed in the fourth quarter (+$88.3 billion) by an increase in the value of natural resources excluding land. The value of metallic and non-metallic mineral reserves rose to $614.8 billion in the fourth quarter from $502.9 billion in the previous quarter, largely due to strong commodity price growth.
Chart 7
Change in national net worth by component
Note to readers
Changes to the Financial and Wealth Accounts
Efforts to streamline and improve the production of the Financial and Wealth Accounts have been incorporated with the adoption of a new compilation system as of this release. This system relies on the same logic and national accounting concepts that were the foundation of the previous system but standardizes and simplifies key aspects of the compilation. While this behind-the-scenes change will be largely transparent for users as instrument and sector classifications and series vectors will remain the same, it is important to maintain the production pipelines with which macroeconomic statistics are compiled to ensure efficacy, flexibility, transparency, and quality. As a result of this system update, there were changes to time series outside the usual revision window resulting from improvements to how data is compiled.
These process updates can be grouped into three general domains:
Updates to classifications and nomenclature used within our statistical process
Behind the scenes, thousands of data series are estimated and aggregated. However, series nomenclatures and classifications of source data and adjustment types varied by sector and by instrument. A more standardized taxonomy was introduced to harmonize nomenclature. This update did not result in significant revisions, but improved data structures used during compilation.
Improved application of coherent methodologies and more consistent integration of data sources
Within the compilation system, the derivation of transactions and other changes can vary in approach between sectors and the process of balancing the matrix was made more complicated by the mixture of book and market value methodologies. To address these issues, an improved derivation of transactions and other changes in assets was implemented more consistently across sectors and both book value and market-value estimates and adjustments were separated into distinct layers. Additionally, key data sources, such as the securities statistics program, were integrated more broadly across sectors and used to estimate specific market values and book values where global mark-up ratios were previously used.
Increased consistency between estimates and source data
Given the implementation of more consistent taxonomies, nomenclature, and methods, there were also situations where newer vintages of source data were incorporated at the initial compilation of sectoral balance sheets. For the most part, these data did not result in significant changes and provided a clearer link with source data.
Revisions
This release of the national balance sheet and financial flow accounts for the fourth quarter of 2025 includes revised estimates for the first quarter of 1990 to the third quarter of 2025. These data incorporate new and revised data, as well as updated data on seasonal trends.
Data enhancements to the national balance sheet and financial flow accounts, such as the development of detailed counterparty information by sector, 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.
Details on revisions from the third quarter of 2025 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 third quarter to the fourth quarter of 2025.
Unless otherwise stated, distributional information from the Distributions of Household Economic Accounts program is from the previous quarter. For this fourth quarter release of the national balance sheet and financial flow accounts, that would be the third quarter of 2025.
Unless otherwise stated, this release presents data unadjusted for seasonality.
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 fourth 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 first quarter of 2026 will be released on June 12.
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 2025, 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 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).
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