Economy
Canada Looks Relatively Equal on Income. Then You Look at Wealth.
Canada's top 10% earn 33.5% of national income but hold 60.4% of wealth. The middle 40% owns just 25.7% of wealth, the lowest share of 15 high-income democracies compared here.
Canada's top 10% earn 33.5% of national income but hold 60.4% of wealth. The contrast is striking. Canada's income distribution looks relatively equal compared with other rich countries. Wealth is a different story.
The middle 40% receives 49.6% of Canadian income but owns just 25.7% of wealth — the lowest share among the 15 high-income democracies compared here. The top 1% shows the gap most clearly: 9.4% of income versus 29.3% of wealth.
On income, the World Inequality Report 2026 repeatedly groups Canada with Europe and Australia as the less-unequal cluster, contrasting that group with the United States, whose income concentration the report says is "closer to the patterns of inequality of the Global South." On wealth, the report draws a different line: "The United States and Canada stand out with a much thinner middle share, closer to Latin American and African patterns." Canada's income distribution is relatively equal by rich-country standards. Its wealth distribution is not.
Canada has the smallest middle-class wealth share in this comparison, below even the United States.