Canadian Capitalist

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The Spending Habits of Canadians

December 16th, 2005 · 8 Comments

Statistics Canada recently released its 2004 Survey of Household Spending. The major expense items are:

Personal taxes - 20%
Shelter - 19%
Transportation - 13.5%
Food - 11%
Recreation - 5.7%
Insurance and RRSPs - 5.7%
Household operation - 4.6%
Clothing - 4%

Average household expenses have increased at a fairly brisk pace in recent years: 4.5% in 2002, 1.8% in 2003 and 4.0% in 2004 (NB: The growth in CPI over the same period was 3.9%, 2.0% and 2.1% respectively). With sky-high energy prices, we can expect another fairly significant increase in 2005.

You can also read about last year’s survey here.

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8 responses so far ↓

  • 1 petey pablo // Dec 16, 2005 at 7:11 pm

    i might be in trouble.
    Here’s mine:
    personal taxes - 22.8%
    shelter - 18.7%
    transportation - 7.7%
    food - 7.5%
    recreation - 5%
    Insurance and RRSPs - 12.5%
    Household operation - 6.6%
    Clothing - 2%

    I think I’m contributing way too much to my RRSP.

  • 2 Canadian Capitalist // Dec 16, 2005 at 9:48 pm

    Petey: That’s a good thing! :)

    What surprised me is that Canadians on average seem to spend more or less the same on RRSP contributions and Tobacco and alcohol.

  • 3 petey pablo // Dec 16, 2005 at 10:38 pm

    ok same into the alcohol and tobacco is just down right scary.

    I did the math, that works out to be a LOT of alcohol or a very small contribution to their RRSP… or BOTH! :o

  • 4 Stephan // Dec 16, 2005 at 11:45 pm

    I am curious to know where the other 16.5% is going :-)

  • 5 petey pablo // Dec 17, 2005 at 7:53 am

    the other 16.5% goes towards savings I would imagine. I think that’s a reasonable amount to save a year.

  • 6 Canadian Capitalist // Dec 17, 2005 at 8:55 am

    Stephan: There is a laundry list of expenses that make up the rest of the expenses: Household furnishings and equipment, Healthcare, gifts, tobacco and alcohol, education, misc., personal care etc.

    Petey: The breakdown is the % of the average household expenses of $63,640. Sadly, the average Canadian savings rate is negative and the median contribution is only $2600.

  • 7 Stephan // Dec 18, 2005 at 12:23 am

    Sorry, I was going for a bit of levity but I obviously failed :-(

    Wouldn’t booze & smokes come under “recreation”? uh oh there I go again.

  • 8 Canadian Capitalist // Dec 18, 2005 at 10:39 am

    Yeah. So, should games of chance :)

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