Income in Canada
The median income in Canada is about $58 a day per person (2021 PPP dollars) — richer than 92% of everyone alive. Half of Canada lives on less than that.
The world's own median person — about $7.73 a day — would stand in the bottom 1% of Canada.
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The curve
Daily income per person, log scale, PPP dollars — the same curve the machine walks you across.
What it takes to stand where
Take-home income per person, in today's CAD, at each point on the curve of Canada (the machine's convention: household take-home divided by the people it supports).
| Richer than… | per year, per person | per day (PPP $) |
|---|---|---|
| 10% of Canada | CA$14,655 | $28 |
| 25% of Canada | CA$21,337 | $41 |
| 50% of Canada | CA$30,493 | $58 |
| 75% of Canada | CA$43,306 | $82 |
| 90% of Canada | CA$60,776 | $116 |
| 99% of Canada | CA$140,758 | $268 |
Rounded, never inflated: the machine floors "richer than" claims.
The four levels in Canada
How much of Canada and of the world lives on each of four income levels. The cuts are the World Bank's $3.00 (international poverty line) and $8.30 (upper-middle-income line), both 2021 PPP; the top cut, $33, is the machine's own, four times the $8.30 line. The objects are what an income on each level tends to buy across the world's surveys — not a description of any one country.
| Level | per day (PPP $) | What tends to come with it, worldwide | Canada | World |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | under $3.00 | a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot | <1% | 13% |
| Level 2 | $3.00–$8.30 | a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance | 1% | 39% |
| Level 3 | $8.30–$33 | a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account | 14% | 32% |
| Level 4 | $33+ | a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap | 85% | 15% |
- Level 1 · under $3.00 a dayCanada <1% · World 13%a fire to cook on, water carried home from the well, everywhere on foot
- Level 2 · $3.00–$8.30 a dayCanada 1% · World 39%a bicycle, a gas canister for the stove, a tap within walking distance
- Level 3 · $8.30–$33 a dayCanada 14% · World 32%a motorbike, a gas stove, a bank account
- Level 4 · $33+ a dayCanada 85% · World 15%a car, a fridge, hot water from the tap
About 85% of Canada lives on Level 4, $33 a day or more per person; worldwide, roughly one in seven people do.
The line that moved
In Canada, 1.1% lived under the $3.00 line at the 1990 survey and under 1% at the 2022 one — it has barely moved.
Share of Canada under $3.00 a day (2021 prices) at each national survey, World Bank PIP via Our World in Data; the faint line is the world's.
Worldwide, the share under the World Bank's $3.00-a-day line fell from about 43% in 1990 to about 10% today (Our World in Data; the latest years are the Bank's nowcast). Where the lift came, it came the unglamorous way: wages, harvests, workshops.
Who earns what in Canada
8 portraits, not payroll data: each stands roughly where that kind of work typically earns on the curve of Canada.
| the lowest 10% | the earnings of a seasonal farm worker — up before the prairie sun |
|---|---|
| 10–25% | the earnings of a grocery cashier — who knows the regulars by name |
| 25–45% | the earnings of an early-childhood educator — herding snowsuits every winter morning |
| 45–65% | the earnings of an electrician — licensed, insured, and booked out for weeks |
| 65–82% | the earnings of a high-school teacher — with a union pension waiting |
| 82–93% | the earnings of a mining engineer — flying in, flying out |
| 93–98% | the earnings of a specialist physician |
| the highest 2% | the earnings of a bank executive on Bay Street |
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Where this comes from
The World Bank's Poverty and Inequality Platform percentile distribution for Canada (survey year 2022), in 2021 PPP dollars; incomes typed in today's money are deflated to 2021 prices with the national CPI and converted with the 2021 consumption-PPP factor. Snapshot fetched September 2026. Full methodology & honesty rules.
Neighbours on the curve
The countries whose median income sits nearest to Canada's — and a few far from it, for scale.