April 14 2026

Statistics Canada has confirmed what most Canadians already suspected—that wealth and income inequality are continuing to grow.

The gap between 40% of households with the highest incomes and the 40% of households with the lowest incomes has increased. So has the share of wealth held by the wealthiest people in Canada.

Wage growth low, while financial markets doing very well

The reasons for the increase in wealth and income inequality aren’t hard to figure out.

Wages grew by 3.1% in 2025, but for households with the lowest incomes the average wage gains were considerably lower at only 2.1%. At the same time, higher income households, which can afford to invest more, benefitted from equity markets doing well.

Some politicians and business commentators like to suggest that the stock market doing well is a sign the economy is doing well. Yet, as the growth in income and wealth inequality make clear, it’s only good news for the wealthy.

Wealthiest 1% have almost as much as 80% of Canadian households combined

As an Oxfam report that came out earlier this year revealed, the richest 1% of people in Canada have the same amount of wealth as bottom 80% combined. 1,700 families have as much as 13,479,800 families.

Wealth use their wealth to get more at our expense

And there’s a danger the widening gap will get worse. As the Oxfam points out, income and wealth inequality are a threat to democracy. The wealthy are using their wealth to increase their power at the expense of the rest of us. And because the 1% know that the 99% can outvote them, the methods they use often undermine democracy.

The way the wealthy corporations threaten democracy can range from union busting to supporting far-right campaigns. You can find more about how this is being done in the International Trade Union Congress (ITUC) report, Corporate Underminers of Democracy 2025.