Of the five income options given, $100,000 is the most popular answer, chosen by 37% of respondents. The next largest group (25.8%) targeted higher, choosing $150,000. A slightly less than 23.8%, the median salary of Canada was $74,200. The smaller cohort chose $200,000 (8.5%) and $250,000 (4.9%), very close to the highest federal tax rate.
There is no clear consensus on the money needed to live comfortably in Canada. Your own answers may depend on your age – age and older respondents tend to choose lower payments, while during the main work and parenting years, people choose higher payments – as well as your family size, the city you live in, whether you own your own home directly, and any other variables.
Our Knowledge of Canadian Income
According to Statistics Canada, the average disposable income of Canadian households is 2024. The average households with top (fourth and fifth) income quintiles were $115,656 and $212,741.
To make the highest income of Canada’s highest income person up to 10%, you must earn at least $125,945. For the top 25%, the threshold is $81,184. Those who earn between $57,375 and $114,750 are considered middle class. Note that these are personal income; on average, family income will be higher.
Just as different ideas about the composition of comfort, the opposite measure is also true: poverty. Living Wage Canada is a nonprofit organization that measures what it believes is enough hourly wages to cover the basic living expenses of communities across Canada. It fixed Calgary’s living wage ($24.45) and Vancouver ($27.05) to $24.45. In the Greater Toronto area, that’s $26. According to a 36-hour working week, the price is $48,672 per year.
Similarly, Statistics Canada measures the cost of living in different locations to find the point where low income threshold (LICO) applies federal tax rates and benefits. The highest cost of raising a family of four is located far north, reaching $125,784 in Iqaluit, Nunavut. In the south of the 60th parallel, the poverty line for families is the highest in Vancouver at $59,508.
The economic teams of major banks are trying to complicate the composition of “affordability” in the real estate market. They examined the proportion of average income required to cover the average cost of home ownership in each city. But even so, there are certain assumptions that, for example, the average housing cost should not exceed 30% of the total household income. When banks focus on the mortgage market, they don’t bring other contributors to the cost of living.
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How Moneysense calculates comfortable income
To more scientifically measure the meaning of comfort across Canada, we have turned to the cost-of-living tools developed by work-site careers. Below you will find a list of Canadian cities with a population of 50,000 or more, as well as the average monthly expenses for renting a single person, including rent, transportation, food, utilities, clothing, leisure and other expenses.
We then consider additional income tax needs (including employment insurance and Canadian pension plan contributions) that are typically net to between 20% and 25% of the total income of middle-income earners and 10% to 15% of savings. We then aggregate the additional 10% to 20% of the price into “comfort” so that unplanned spending or additional savings can be made.
Using it as a guide, we live comfortably in each community, about twice the average cost of living calculated. The following pie chart gives a rough diagram of the assumptions in this method.
While the amount of cost of living at CareerBeacon is based on single-income people who rent a single home, in most cases, they can target similar comfortable living standards for two-income families and homeowners. For example, a family of four with two parents who may need to clear $200,000 in the workforce to make Vancouver or Whitby, Ontario comfortable, but only get $115,000 in the Trois-Rivières in Quebec.
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Comfortable income levels in Canadian cities
In the table below, the communities are listed alphabetically to make it easy to find the comfortable income of the community or close to your community income. The municipality of CareerBeacon surveyed only 50,000 or more residents.
| City | avg. Monthly living expenses | Annual income required for comfort (single person) |
|---|---|---|
| Abbotsford, British Columbia | $3,522 | $84,528 |
| Airdrie, Alberta | $3,811 | $91,464 |
| Ajax, Ontario | $3,605 | $86,520 |
| Aurora, Ontario | $3,521 | $84,504 |
| Barry, Ontario | $3,807 | $91,368 |
| Belleville, Ontario | $3,724 | $89,376 |
| Brampton, Ontario | $3,471 | $83,304 |
| Brantford, Ontario | $3,336 | $80,064 |
| Brosard Quebec | $3,824 | $91,776 |
| Burlington, Ontario | $4,001 | $96,024 |
| Burnaby, British Columbia | $4,263 | $102,312 |
| Calgary, Alberta | $3,666 | $87,984 |
| Cambridge, Ontario | $3,747 | $89,928 |
| Chilliwak, British Columbia | $3,402 | $81,648 |
| Coquitlam, British Columbia | $4,372 | $104,928 |
| Drummondville, Quebec | $3,383 | $81,192 |
| Edmonton, Alberta | $3,295 | $79,080 |
| Fredericton, New Brunswick | $2,991 | $71,784 |
| Gattino, Quebec | $3,225 | $77,400 |
| Granby, Quebec | $3,469 | $83,256 |
| Alberta Prairie | $3,525 | $84,600 |
| Greater Sudbury, Ontario | $3,395 | $81,480 |
| Guelph, Ontario | $3,818 | $91,632 |
| Halifax, Nova Scotia | $3,696 | $88,704 |
| Hamilton, Ontario | $3,681 | $88,344 |
| Kamloops, British Columbia | $3,802 | $91,248 |
| Kelowna, British Columbia | $3,685 | $88,440 |
| Kingston, Ontario | $3,437 | $82,488 |
| Kitchener, Ontario | $3,787 | $90,888 |
| Laval, Quebec | $3,416 | $81,984 |
| Lethbridge, Alberta | $3,067 | $73,608 |
| London, Ontario | $3,618 | $86,832 |
| Quebec governor | $3,298 | $79,152 |
| Markham, Ontario | $4,084 | $98,016 |
| Medical Cap, Alberta | $2,934 | $70,416 |
| Milton, Ontario | $4,433 | $106,392 |
| Mississauga, Ontario | $4,159 | $99,816 |
| Moncton, New Brunswick | $3,058 | $73,392 |
| Montreal, Quebec | $3,276 | $78,624 |
| Nanaimo, British Columbia | $3,557 | $85,368 |
| New Westminster, British Columbia | $3,941 | $94,584 |
| Newmarket, Ontario | $3,426 | $82,224 |
| Niagara Falls, Ontario | $3,451 | $82,824 |
| North Bay, Ontario | $3,621 | $86,904 |
| North Vancouver, British Columbia | $4,313 | $103,512 |
| Oakville, Ontario | $3,814 | $91,536 |
| Oshawa, Ontario | $3,719 | $89,256 |
| Ottawa, Ontario | $3,713 | $89,112 |
| Peterborough, Ontario | $3,531 | $84,744 |
| Pickering, Ontario | $3,624 | $86,976 |
| Port of Coquitlam, British Columbia | $3,627 | $87,048 |
| Prince George, British Columbia | $3,361 | $80,664 |
| Quebec City | $3,034 | $72,816 |
| Alberta Red Deer | $3,266 | $78,384 |
| Regina, Saskatchewan | $3,141 | $75,384 |
| Richmond Hill, Ontario | $4,439 | $106,536 |
| Richmond, British Columbia | $3,835 | $92,040 |
| Saguenay, Quebec | $3,461 | $83,064 |
| St. John, New Brunswick | $3,253 | $78,072 |
| Sarnia, Ontario | $3,092 | $74,208 |
| Saskatoon, Saskatchewan | $3,286 | $78,864 |
| Sault Ste. Mary, Ontario | $3,031 | $72,744 |
| Sherbrooke, Quebec | $2,705 | $64,920 |
| St. Alberta | $3,697 | $88,728 |
| St. Catherines, Ontario | $3,533 | $84,792 |
| St. John, Newfoundland and Labrador | $3,119 | $74,856 |
| Surrey, British Columbia | $3,995 | $95,880 |
| Thunder Bay, Ontario | $3,475 | $83,400 |
| Toronto, Ontario | $4,120 | $98,880 |
| Trois-Rivières, Quebec | $2,414 | $57,936 |
| Vancouver, British Columbia | $4,274 | $102,576 |
| Vaughn, Ontario | $4,040 | $96,960 |
| Victoria, British Columbia | $4,003 | $96,072 |
| Waterloo, Ontario | $3,629 | $87,096 |
| Weilan, Ontario | $3,530 | $84,720 |
| Whitby, Ontario | $4,401 | $105,624 |
| Windsor, Ontario | $3,626 | $87,024 |
| Winnipeg, Manitoba | $3,303 | $79,272 |
The annual income required for a comfortable lifestyle ranges from about $58,000 to over $106,000, depending on where you live, which is almost two times the gap. Overall, however, the most expensive cities are located near major work centers such as Toronto and Vancouver, while more affordable cities fall outside or large metropolitan areas and have lower housing demand.
