Alberta Leads Canadian Provinces w/ Highest Household Income

September 10, 2017
By Cody Battershill

Latest Census Data Shows Alberta Fared Well in 2015

According to the latest census data from Statistics Canada, Alberta leads all Canadian provinces when it comes to average household income, but places third when including the territories behind the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

In 2015, Alberta had a household median income of $93,835 – that’s about $30,000 more than the provincial average and almost $20,000 more than Saskatchewan, the second highest province on the list. Also see Calgary Ranks 4th Highest in Canada for Household Income (2016).

The number of private households also grew because of higher income growth. In 2016, private households in Alberta grew 21.6 percent compared to 2005, with British Columbia trailing behind in second place at 14.5 percent and a national average coming it at 13.1 percent.

Furthermore, low-income households seemed much sparser in the Western Canadian province. In 2015, approximately 9.3 percent of Alberta households were considered “low-income”, 4.9 points lower than the national average of 14.2 percent and the lowest in all of Canada.

Thank Our Natural Resources

The census data also compares growth over a decade, giving much credit to the increase in household incomes in Canada to the natural resource sector, of which drew both people and investment to Newfoundland and Labrador, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

This also, of course, indirectly stimulated economies across the nation by boosting other industries like the construction sector, also providing higher incomes for many workers outside the energy sector.

Alberta Regional Municipalities: By the Numbers

Which of Alberta’s municipalities saw the most growth in average household incomes between 2005 and 2015?

Wood Buffalo + 35.2%

Camrose +29.9%

Wetaskiwin +27.3%

Okotoks +27.0%

Edmonton +26.6%

Cold Lake +23.0%

Calgary +22.7%

At the bottom of the ladder was the Sylvan Lake Regional Municipality, which experienced an increase of median household income of only 7.8 percent between 2005 and 2015 while having the second largest increase in number of households – with a gain of 50.5 percent.

Canada as a Whole

The median income of all Canadian households rose 10.8 percent from $63,457 in 2005 to $70,336 in 2015.

At $117,688, the Northwest Territories had highest median income in all of Canada

Following NWT was Nunavut at $97,411, slightly ahead of Alberta with $93,835

Approximately 1.2 million children under 18 lived in a low-income household, about one quarter of the total people living in these conditions in 2015

$74,287 Ontario median household income, up only 3.8 percent between 2005 and 2015 and the slowest growth of all provinces and territories

Slow growth in Ontario and Quebec attributed to the loss of 318,000 jobs, down 30 percent between 2005 and 2015

I Love Alberta

Let’s hope that in the coming years, Alberta’s average household incomes will only go higher than they already are and that the economic prosperity the province has been known for over the years comes back and stays for a while.

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