In the runup to this election and duirng its first week, we've heard a lot about the middle class — how various parties will provide new programs for the middle class and tax relief for the middle class.
Today, Stephen Harper suggested a middle class household had income approaching $70,000 or $80,000 a year. Alexa McDonough, when she led the NDP, suggested individuals earning $60,000 were high-income Canadians.
I asked Statscan today to break down our population by household income level.
If we agree that there are three groups in Canada — low, middle, and high-income households — and if we agree that we should define these three groups such that each group is roughly the same size then we end up defining low, middle, and high income households this way,using the Statscan data:
- The lowest third of households, measured by average annual income, earns less than $35,000. 34.5 per cent of households earn less than this amount.
- The middle third has an annual income of between $35,000 and $69,900. This middle class accounts for 33.2 per cent of households.
- Finally, 32.2 per cent of households in Cananda have a combined annual income of $70,000. This would mark your high-income group.
Some other notes on this subject:
- 15.4 per cent of households in Canada have income greater than $100,000 a year.
- 13.1 per cent of households have annual income of less than $30,000.
- In 2003, the most recent year for which numbers are available, the average total income per household in Canada was $62,000. The median level was $49,300, meaning that half of Canada's households earned less than that and half earned more.
- Nfld and Labrador had the lowest household incomes (avg $48,900 / median $39,300).
- Ontario in 2003 had the highest household incomes ($70,700 avg /t $56,500 median)