Low‑wealth and young Canadians build assets fast, but high debt keeps them vulnerable
Canadian households quietly added more than $1tn to their net worth last year, with markets — not housing — doing the heavy lifting.
Household net worth reached $18.6tn in the fourth quarter of 2025, up nearly $230.2bn quarter-over-quarter and about $17.6tn at the end of 2024, as reported by the Financial Post.
Financial assets in the fourth quarter grew 10.5 percent year-over-year, and the ratio of financial assets such as stocks to non-financial assets such as real estate hit 120.7 percent, its highest point in more than two decades, the paper said.
“For the last two years, financial assets have been the primary driver of gains,” said Maria Solovieva, economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank, in the Financial Post.
Domestic equity markets “stole the show,” with the S&P/TSX composite index climbing 5.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2025 and ending the year 28.2 percent higher than at the end of 2024 — the largest annual increase since 2009 — while the S&P 500 index ended the year 16.4 percent higher.
As a result, financial assets grew 2.5 percent, or $296.9bn, to reach $11.95tn in the fourth quarter, the paper said.
Statistics Canada data cited by the Financial Post show that “other financial assets” — stocks, bonds, investment funds and cash — account for 45 percent of household wealth and rose 10.4 percent year-over-year in the third quarter to $484,700 per household on average.
“Canada also benefited from the later-in-the-year rally in precious metals,” said Shelly Kaushik, senior economist at Bank of Montreal (BMO) Capital Markets, adding that Canadians hold a fair concentration of gold.
The Financial Post reported that the wealthiest households — the top 20 percent of the wealth distribution — benefited the most, as other financial assets make up more than half of their net worth.
“It’s the number one driver of their wealth,” said James Gauthier, a senior economic analyst at Statistics Canada.
These households accounted for two-thirds of Canada’s total net worth in the third quarter of 2025, averaging $3.5m per household and increasing their net worth at the fastest pace (6.3 percent) year-over-year compared with other wealth quintiles.
By generation, the Financial Post said millennials grew their other financial assets by 7.8 percent year-over-year to $294,968 on average, with about 46 percent of their wealth in these assets.
Baby boomers have a similar percentage, with about $694,678 on average, while generation X holds 43 percent of its wealth in other financial assets, or $592,076 on average.
The pre‑1946 generation shows the greatest concentration, at 49 percent of net worth and $396,170 on average.
In Alberta and Saskatchewan, where average net worth per household is $1.01m and $913,720 respectively, other financial assets account for more than half of household wealth ($569,582 and $526,157 per household).
TD Economics reported that the wealth gap — the difference in the share of wealth held by the top 20 percent and the bottom 40 percent of households by wealth — narrowed by 5 percentage points from 2019 to 2023, reaching a record low of 60 percentage points.
It said average wealth for the bottom 40 percent increased over seven times faster than for the top 20 percent, and that households where the major income earner is under 35 years of age also increased wealth over seven times faster than those 35 and older.
TD Economics said low-wealth and young families used low interest rates, financial market strength, government support, income gains and familial financial support to invest in real estate and financial markets.
At the same time, TD Economics warned that vulnerabilities remain.
It said the net worth of households in the bottom 40 percent, at a median of $64,150 in 2023, falls short of providing financial security, and that households in the lowest quintile had a median net worth of only $12,500 in 2023.
Citing Distributions of Household Economic Accounts data, TD Economics said young households under 35 appear to be stepping back from homeownership as living costs rise.
From the third quarter of 2022 to the third quarter of 2025, their average real estate assets declined 4 percent and their mortgage debt fell 8 percent.
On the liability side, the Financial Post reported that the household savings rate declined to 4.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2025 as spending grew 1.2 percent and disposable income rose 0.6 percent.
Household credit market debt exceeded $3.2tn, and the ratio of this debt to disposable income increased for the fifth consecutive quarter to 177.2 percent.
Kaushik said this debt-to-income ratio is higher than historical patterns and other countries, leaving households more sensitive to interest rate changes, even though it remains below the 188.2 percent peak in 2022.
The Financial Post said economists see geopolitical tensions and gas prices as risks to household wealth.
Kaushik pointed to the ongoing trade war with the United States and ongoing negotiations for the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).
She and Solovieva also cited the US and Israel’s war on Iran, which has led to higher oil prices and stock market volatility, with Solovieva warning “it is possible to see a reversal of either no growth in financial assets or even contraction in financial assets” and “weakness in real estate assets.”
TD Economics, for its part, said that while many low‑wealth households still lack financial security, “the overall positive development in Canadian household wealth since the pandemic is cause for some optimism.”
