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)
移民到了加拿大,移风易俗之其一是不问别人的钱财和收入,当然别人也不会将他的财产底数说给你听。对于我们生活的这个地方,熟悉的亲朋和近邻过得如何,你可能知道一些,对身边之外再大些范围的只能是雾里看物,凭着感觉去判断了。究竟加拿大人有多少财富,在经济萧条之时,他们的生活水准如何? 加拿大 Money Sense 杂志最近公布了他们关于"加拿大人财富"的一项最新研究结果。这项研究根据2009年的最新统计数据,将加拿大人以性别、居住地区、婚姻状态、年龄等因素划分为不同类别,定义出贫和富的不同界限。从而让我们通过这些数据来了解加拿大人的财富和生活水准,也评估一下自己,现时生活在加拿大,是富人还是穷人?
Roger Sauve在文章中提出有趣的建议,你如果想拥有更多财富,首先你要出生为男性,再则,加拿大有各种机会,你要有耐心,财富靠积累,从35岁开始到64岁最高峰,个人财富增长了6.7倍。另外拥有财富多少还与受教育背景、工作勤奋程度等相关。还有一点,出生在富有家庭或者婚嫁到富有家庭或者结识有钱人都会有好处。Roger Sauve还建议,根据这项研究结果,你可以比照一下自己,如果高于平均值你就可以庆贺了,如果低于平均值,你可问问自己为什么? 去找找理由