Who is Earning What?

Statistics Canada released income data on Canadians taxpayers from 2004. If your individual income was $89,000 or more, you were in the top 5 percent of Canadian taxpayers. To be in the top 5 percent in terms of family income, you would need $154,000 or more.

A middle income family earned $43,000 in 2004.

The range of incomes in the top 1 percent of the Canadian population varies dramatically. To gain entry into the top 1 percent, your individual income would be more than $181,000 or more than $305,000 for the total family income. To be in the top 0.1 percent your individual income would need to be more than $648,000. The family income for the top 0.01 percent? A mere $1,045,000.

The top 2,000 Canadians, 0.01 percent of the population, individually earn more than $2.8 million. For the family to be considered as the top 0.01 percent, the income would need to be more than $4.3 million.

95 percent of Canadian families earn less than $154,000.

At the end of the day, income is relative. I found that over the years, as I made more money, my expenses somehow increased.

Thank heavens for forced savings.