Average Net Worth by Age in Canada: What It's Made Of

In 2023, the median net worth of Canadian households aged 55 to 64 was $873,400. It is a single figure for everything the household owns, minus what it owes, like putting the whole basket on a scale. But two baskets that weigh the same do not feed you the same. It depends on what is inside: food you can eat now, food that needs cooking, and corn still in its husk. And some things that do feed you are not even in the basket.

Net worth by age in Canada and in Quebec

These are the figures from Statistics Canada's 2023 Survey of Financial Security, in 2023 dollars, by the age of the household's highest earner:

The survey measures what the household owns minus what it owes. It includes the home, and the employer pension valued as if the person left their job today, but not public pensions (the QPP or CPP) or OAS. In Quebec the samples are smaller and each median has a wide margin: according to the survey itself, the 55 to 64 median could fall anywhere between $569,000 and $759,000.

Statistics Canada also has a more recent series, but it gives only averages: $1,597,113 per household aged 55 to 64 at the end of 2025, in current dollars.

RRSPs and TFSAs by age

The same survey breaks out savings accounts. These are the figures for Canada: the median among households that hold each account, and in parentheses, the share of households that hold it:

The RRSP figure also includes RRIFs and LIRAs (locked-in retirement accounts), because the survey groups them together. Statistics Canada warns that the TFSA figure for ages 45 to 54 is imprecise. For TFSAs there is a more recent source. The CRA publishes the average value per holder for the 2024 tax year: $52,381 for ages 60 to 64 and $38,566 across all ages. It is an average per person, not per household.

Why is the average so far above the median?

The median is the household in the middle: half have more and half have less. The average adds everything up and divides it equally among everyone, and a handful of fortunes is enough to push it up. Between 55 and 64, the gap between the two is almost half a million.

Statistics Canada also ranks every Quebec household from least to most wealthy and splits them into five equal groups, which shows who is pushing it up. Across all ages, the middle group, the typical household, has a median net worth of $371,000; the richest 20%, $1,830,900, almost five times as much. Because the average sits far above the median, most households fall below it. How much you need is a different question, and we answer it in how much to save for retirement.

What is the typical household's net worth made of?

For those two groups, this is each item's share of everything they own, before subtracting debts and without breaking it down by age:

Here is the basket from the start, unpacked. The house is a frozen turkey taking up half of it. It feeds you a lot, but only if you thaw it and cook it, that is, if you sell it or borrow against it. An employer pension that pays a monthly income is not in your basket: it is food that arrives every month. Once you start collecting it, you cannot draw a whole year's worth in advance. Even so, the survey puts it on the scale, valued as if you left your job today.

The RRSP, the TFSA and the bank account, the savings you can draw from, add up to around 15%. And almost three in four typical households still owe something; among them, the median debt is $129,000.

The richest 20% have a different basket. The house takes up less than a quarter of it, and there are other properties, private businesses and funds outside registered accounts. That is why the average looks so little like the typical household: it describes other people's baskets.

Net worth by income

If you want to compare yourself with households that earn what you earn, the survey also groups them by after-tax income, across all ages. The income brackets are approximate. They come from a separate Statistics Canada survey for 2023, expressed in 2024 dollars. In Quebec:

In the two highest brackets, at least three in four households own their home and more than eight in ten have an RRSP. In the highest bracket, one in four owns another property and almost one in three, a business.

Same savings, different retirement

An RRSP and a TFSA can hold the same balance and not feed you the same. The TFSA is a shucked ear of corn: every kernel is yours. The RRSP is the same ear in its husk, and the husk belongs to the taxman: every dollar you withdraw is added to your income for the year.

Statistics Canada weighs the RRSP at its full value, husk included. An employer pension, the QPP or CPP, and OAS are taxable too, but they arrive in fixed portions every month. With the RRSP, you largely decide how much you withdraw and when, and that changes how much the taxman takes.

To measure the difference, we simulated a Quebec couple, Hélène and Denis. Both are 65 and retire in 2026 with the QPP and full OAS, and no employer pension, so that everything depends on their savings. Their QPP reflects a full career, with salaries in line with each savings level. We assume a 4% annual return and 2% inflation, and that Denis dies at 85 and Hélène at 87, based on life expectancy at 65 in Quebec.

We gave them three savings levels. The $160,000 is the median RRSP plus the median TFSA among households aged 55 to 64 that hold those accounts ($120,000 plus $39,100). The $330,000 is the same sum using averages ($266,000 plus $60,400). The million is a high-end case. In the first version, the savings are 50% in the RRSP, 10% in the TFSA and 40% in a non-registered account. That is how the combined savings of all households that age divide up in the same survey. In the other two versions, everything is in RRSPs, split between them or in Denis's name. This is the most they can spend each month, including the QPP and OAS, after tax and in 2026 dollars, until the second of them dies:

At $160,000, the difference is $100 a month, or $1,200 a year. At $1,000,000 it reaches $850 a month, or $10,200 a year: about 10% less for the whole of retirement.

If they spend the same in all three versions, an amount all three can afford, the difference shows up at the end. This is what is left for the heirs after the final tax return, in 2026 dollars:

When Denis passes away, his RRIF, the account an RRSP becomes once you start drawing on it, can go to Hélène tax-free. When Hélène passes away, everything left in the RRIF counts as income for that final year. With the million in Denis's name, that final tax return took 41% of the balance. With a million, we also tested longer lives and returns of 3% and 5%: the figures change, but the order does not. Outside Quebec, taxes differ and so would the figures, but in every province each RRSP withdrawal is added to income.

The scale weighs the corn in its husk. Retirement eats only the kernels.

Having everything in Denis's name costs another $150 a month with a million, and that part can be fixed. From 65, pension income splitting lets you move up to half of the RRIF income to your spouse, and you choose it each year on your return. A plan that applies that split and adjusts withdrawals year by year, without changing the QPP or OAS start age, brings both all-RRSP versions of the million to $7,800 a month. If they spend the same, it recovers between $56,000 and $86,000 for the heirs.

The comparison starts from equal balances, so it leaves out the deduction you get when you contribute to an RRSP. Which account to save in depends on your tax rate when you contribute and when you withdraw.

To read your own basket, separate three things. The house gives you a roof, but it only feeds you if you sell it or borrow against it. Public pensions (the QPP or CPP) and OAS arrive every month without the scale weighing them; the employer pension also arrives every month, but the survey does weigh it. Last comes what you can draw on. There, the RRSP is worth what is left after tax, and that depends on how and when you withdraw it.

Your net worth tells you how much your basket weighs. Your retirement depends on how much of it you will be able to eat, and on what arrives each month.