Contents
- Canadian household debt statistics: Debt compared with disposable income
- Canadian household debt statistics: Mortgage, consumer credit and borrowing flows
- Canadian household debt statistics: Canadian household debt by age group of major income earner
- Canadian household debt service and interest costs
- Canadian household debt: Liabilities, assets and household wealth
- Sources
Canadian household debt statistics: Debt compared with disposable income
Canadian household debt statistics describe several related measures, and the distinctions matter. A debt stock is the amount outstanding at a point in time; borrowing is a flow over a quarter or year. A debt-to-income ratio compares debt with disposable income, while debt-to-GDP uses a different denominator. Statistics Canada’s Q2 2026 release reported seasonally adjusted household credit market debt of $3,280.9 billion. In that release, credit market debt as a proportion of household disposable income declined from 178.6% to 176.4% in Q2 2026. These are seasonally adjusted household-sector measures. Source: Statistics Canada, National balance sheet and financial flow accounts, Q2 2026
A separate Statistics Canada indicator table provides not-seasonally-adjusted measures for the household sector. Its Q2 2026 entries should not be substituted for the adjusted ratio above: they use a different adjustment status and are reported with two decimal places. The same table reports debt to disposable income in Q4 2025 as well as Q2 2026, allowing a comparison across those two quarters on a consistent, not-seasonally-adjusted basis.
| Household-sector measure | Q4 2025 | Q2 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Debt to disposable income, not seasonally adjusted | 177.51% | 177.31% |
| Credit market debt to disposable income, not seasonally adjusted | — | 175.06% |
| Debt to GDP, not seasonally adjusted | — | 99.87% |
The table reports only the measured observations selected here; a dash means that a comparison value is not included, not that the value is zero. Debt to GDP has gross domestic product as its denominator, so it answers a different question from debt relative to disposable income. Likewise, the seasonally adjusted 176.4% figure in the release and the not-seasonally-adjusted 177.31% figure in the table are not contradictory readings of one identical series. Source: Statistics Canada, Table 2: Households and non-profit institutions serving household sector indicators – Market value
These ratios are measures of sector-wide relationships. They do not say that each household owes an amount equal to a specified share of its own income, nor do they describe how debt is distributed among households. Later sections give age-group measures and wealth-distribution context, which answer different questions. The ratio also should not be read as a measure of monthly affordability: debt service, which concerns payments relative to income, is reported separately.
Canadian household debt statistics: Mortgage, consumer credit and borrowing flows
Borrowing flows show how much new credit households took on during a period, rather than the outstanding stock. In Q2 2026, seasonally adjusted household credit market borrowing was $29.4 billion. Mortgage borrowing was $19.4 billion, after declining for the second consecutive quarter. Non-mortgage borrowing, including consumer credit, was $10.0 billion. Those categories distinguish mortgage finance from other credit; they are flows and should not be confused with the $3,280.9 billion debt stock. Source: Statistics Canada, National balance sheet and financial flow accounts, Q2 2026
For calendar year 2025, household mortgage borrowing totalled $110.6 billion, while non-mortgage borrowing totalled $30.7 billion. Consumer credit demand fell 23.7% year over year in 2025. The annual totals cover a full calendar year and should not be compared directly with one quarter’s flow as if they represented the same period. Source: Statistics Canada, National balance sheet and financial flow accounts, Q4 2025
A separate breakdown in the 2025 Survey of Financial Security brochure is explicitly labelled “Debts of Canadians, 2023.” It describes debt composition in 2023, not 2025. Mortgages made up 82% of Canadian debt in that breakdown. Credit cards and lines of credit represented 9%, vehicle loans 8%, student loans 2% and other debts 2%. These are the brochure’s reported shares, rounded to whole percentages; the categories and date belong to that specific breakdown. Source: Statistics Canada, Brochure — The 2025 Survey of Financial Security
| Debt category in the brochure | Share of Canadian debt, 2023 |
|---|---|
| Mortgages | 82% |
| Credit cards and lines of credit | 9% |
| Vehicle loans | 8% |
| Student loans | 2% |
| Other debts | 2% |
The composition percentages convey the relative place of listed debt types in the brochure’s 2023 account. They do not measure new borrowing in 2025 or Q2 2026, and they are not dollar balances. The flow figures provide the time-specific view of borrowing activity; the composition table provides a dated snapshot by type. Source: Statistics Canada, Brochure — The 2025 Survey of Financial Security
Canadian household debt statistics: Canadian household debt by age group of major income earner
Statistics Canada’s age-group chart classifies households according to the age of the major income earner. In Q4 2025, the debt-to-income ratio was highest among households in the 35 to 44 years group at 245.8%. It was 220.3% for ages 45 to 54, 174.4% for ages 55 to 64, and 166.0% for households with a major income earner under 35. The ratio for the 65 years and older group was 70.2%.
| Age of major income earner | Debt-to-income ratio, Q4 2025 |
|---|---|
| Under 35 years | 166.0% |
| 35 to 44 years | 245.8% |
| 45 to 54 years | 220.3% |
| 55 to 64 years | 174.4% |
| 65 years and older | 70.2% |
This is a comparison across age groups at one point in time. The values are household debt-to-income ratios, not the average dollar debt held by a person in each age band. They also do not establish why one age group’s ratio is higher; the chart reports the relationship, not its causes. The grouping is based on the major income earner’s age, so it should not be described as an age profile of every individual household member. Source: Statistics Canada, Debt-to-income ratio by age group of major income earner, fourth quarter, 2021 to 2025
Canadian household debt service and interest costs
The household debt service ratio (DSR) measures debt payments in relation to income; it is distinct from the debt-to-income ratio, which compares the outstanding debt stock with disposable income. The seasonally adjusted household-sector DSR was 14.78% in Q2 2025, 14.71% in Q3 2025, 14.68% in Q4 2025, 14.68% in Q1 2026 and 14.52% in Q2 2026. This sequence shows the reported quarterly values over those five quarters. Source: Statistics Canada, Table 2: Households and non-profit institutions serving household sector indicators – Market value
In Q2 2026, total household debt payments increased 1.0% quarter over quarter, while income increased 2.1%; the release said the debt service ratio declined. Interest payments rose 1.4%, mainly accounting for the increase in total payments. Mortgage interest payments rose 1.6%, the largest increase in that measure in the last two years, according to the release. These are changes for the quarter, not annual growth rates. Source: Statistics Canada, National balance sheet and financial flow accounts, Q2 2026
Age-specific interest-only DSR figures add another distinction. For this measure, Statistics Canada defines DSR as total interest payments on credit market debt as a share of disposable income. At the end of 2025, the youngest households’ interest-only DSR was 10.5%; households aged 35 to 44 had the highest reported DSR, at 10.9%. These are Q4 2025 age-group figures and refer to interest payments, whereas the quarterly household-sector DSR series above concerns the overall debt service measure. Source: Statistics Canada, Distributions of household economic accounts for income, consumption, saving and wealth of Canadian households, Q4 2025
That Q4 2025 distributional release also reports that overall household mortgage debt increased 4.2% at the end of 2025 compared with a year earlier. Non-mortgage liabilities associated with consumer durables increased 2.7% over the same year-over-year period. Among households aged 55 to 64, average mortgage debt recorded the strongest growth, rising 6.0% at the end of 2025 relative to a year earlier. These are distinct measures: overall mortgage debt, associated non-mortgage liabilities, and average mortgage debt for an age group. Source: Statistics Canada, Distributions of household economic accounts for income, consumption, saving and wealth of Canadian households, Q4 2025
Canadian household debt: Liabilities, assets and household wealth
Debt is one side of a household-sector balance sheet. Statistics Canada reported that household liabilities, composed primarily of mortgage and non-mortgage debt, rose 1.3% in Q2 2026. In Q4 2025, liabilities increased $33.0 billion, or 1.0%, during the quarter. These figures describe changes in liabilities over their respective quarters; they are not debt-to-income ratios. Source: Statistics Canada, National balance sheet and financial flow accounts, Q2 2026 Source: Statistics Canada, National balance sheet and financial flow accounts, Q4 2025
At the end of Q4 2025, household net worth was $18,594.9 billion and financial assets were $11,954.8 billion. Net worth is assets less liabilities. Household net financial assets, defined as financial assets minus liabilities, increased by $263.9 billion during Q4 2025. The financial-assets and net-worth figures are stocks at the quarter’s end, while the $263.9 billion figure is a quarterly change. Source: Statistics Canada, National balance sheet and financial flow accounts, Q4 2025
The Q2 2026 market-value indicator table provides additional not-seasonally-adjusted balance-sheet ratios for the household sector. Debt was 14.79% of total assets and 17.35% of net worth. Credit market debt was 17.13% of net worth, while consumer credit and mortgage liabilities together were 16.32% of net worth. Other balance-sheet indicators in the same quarter show total assets at 117.35% of net worth, net worth at 1,021.87% of disposable income, financial assets at 65.06% of net worth, and financial assets at 124.43% of non-financial assets. Owner’s equity was 72.70% of real estate. Each percentage uses the denominator named in its measure; these are not interchangeable ratios. Source: Statistics Canada, Table 2: Households and non-profit institutions serving household sector indicators – Market value
| Household-sector indicator, not seasonally adjusted | Q2 2026 |
|---|---|
| Debt to total assets | 14.79% |
| Debt to net worth | 17.35% |
| Credit market debt to net worth | 17.13% |
| Consumer credit and mortgage liabilities to net worth | 16.32% |
| Total assets to net worth | 117.35% |
| Net worth as a percentage of disposable income | 1,021.87% |
| Financial assets to net worth | 65.06% |
| Financial assets to non-financial assets | 124.43% |
| Owner’s equity as a percentage of real estate | 72.70% |
Aggregate wealth figures do not show how wealth is divided. At the end of Q4 2025, the top 20% of the wealth distribution held 65.7% of Canada’s total net worth, while the bottom 40% held 3.0%. Those distribution shares offer context for interpreting sector-wide averages: household debt ratios and aggregate net worth describe the household sector as a whole, while these two figures show that net worth is concentrated unevenly across wealth groups. Source: Statistics Canada, Distributions of household economic accounts for income, consumption, saving and wealth of Canadian households, Q4 2025
Sources
- The Daily — National balance sheet and financial flow accounts, second quarter 2026
- Table 2: Households and non-profit institutions serving household sector indicators – Market value
- Debt-to-income ratio by age group of major income earner, fourth quarter, 2021 to 2025
- The Daily — National balance sheet and financial flow accounts, fourth quarter 2025
- Brochure — The 2025 Survey of Financial Security
- The Daily — Distributions of household economic accounts for income, consumption, saving and wealth of Canadian households, fourth quarter 2025