The highest earners are paying less tax: National Household Survey

OTTAWA—Statistics Canada’s third and final release of 2011 National Household Survey data illustrates, among other things, how much Canadians have been earning and where they have been living. Some highlights:

• Fully one-quarter of Canadian households, about 3.3 million, spent 30 per cent or more of their total income on shelter, exceeding the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.’s “affordability threshold.” They paid an average of $1,259 a month, surpassing the 30 per cent mark by an average of $510.

• 10 per cent of Canadians earned more than $80,400 in 2010, averaging $134,900; the top one per cent averaged $381,300, and 64 per cent of them lived in Ontario and Alberta. The bottom 90 per cent of Canadians earned an average of $28,000.

• Men accounted for 79.5 per cent of the top one per cent earners, and 62 per cent were between 45 and 64 years of age. More than two-thirds of Canada’s top one per cent have a university degree.

• Sixty-nine per cent of households in Canada owned their dwelling in 2011, a marginal increase from 2006 compared with the more dramatic spikes in ownership of the previous 15 years

• In 2010, more than 95 per cent of Canadians aged 15 and older collected income with a median total of $29,900; 70 per cent received government transfers such as Canada Pension Plan, employment insurance, or old age security benefits

• Of those receiving government transfers, 13 per cent reported it as their sole source of income

• Employment income accounted for 87.8 per cent of total income in the Northwest Territories, the highest in the country. At the other end of the spectrum was Prince Edward Island at 68.6 per cent of total income.

• Government transfers comprised 41 per cent of total income for Canadians aged 65 and older, the bulk of it through pension income, old-age security benefits and guaranteed income supplement payments.

• The 10 per cent of Canadians with the highest family after-tax incomes paid 25 per cent of their income in income taxes.