Summary Findings:
I’ve placed the summary findings at the top of this article because there’s a fair bit of analysis in this article from many different sources including Statistics Canada, Wikipedia (for population data), and WealthX, so you will find the high-level data findings in the next few paragraphs followed by the research and analysis.
One more important point – some of the data has been noted in USD, and some in Canadian. Many of the data sources I used were in USD, and in that case, I left the data in USD, and when I found the data in CDN, I left the data in CDN. When required, I did the conversion at 1.3 CDN to USD.
How Much Wealth Do You Need in Canada to Become Part of the 1% of the Wealthiest in 2019: In order to make it into the top 1% of Canada’s wealthiest in 2019, you will need approximately $7,000,000 USD, or approximately $9,000,000 CAD.
Number of Wealthy Canadians by Each Wealth Category (UHNW, VHNW) in 2019:
- Wealthy = 764,033 individuals in Canada have between $1 million and $5 million USD
- VHNW = 91,823 individuals in Canada have between $5 million and $30 million USD
- UHNW = 10,395 individuals in Canada have greater than $30 million USD
What is Required by Age to make it Into the Top 1% of Wealth in Canada:
- Age 25 $405,736 CDN – Total wealth to make it into the top 1%
- Age 35 $1,622,944. CDN – Total wealth to make it into the top 1%
- Age 45 $3,651,625 CDN – Total wealth to make it into the top 1%
- Age 55 $6,491,779 CDN – Total wealth to make it into the top 1%
- Age 65 $9,737,668 CDN – Total wealth to make it into the top 1%
The Top 1% Income in Canada = Salary of $225,409 CDN per year
Article:
The focus of what I write about primarily is centered around the area of helping small business owners grow their business’s revenue, increase profits, and ultimately, create wealth.
Since wealth is one of the areas I write about, I’ve written many blogs on the topic. The subjects vary of course, but, are generally centered around investments, how to generate passive income, how to generate higher rates of return, and how to grow wealth in general.
During the course of the last year, I’ve read many different articles on wealth in general. I’ve also done a fair amount of research on the topic. As a result, I’ve compiled the various articles, and data in particular, in different sheets, so that whenever I need easy access to some information, it’s readily accessible.
The data I’ve tracked is from many different sources. That includes the US Bureau of Labour Statistics, Statistics Canada, and several private research institutions like Wealth-X.
I recently needed access to some data to validate a point I was making about wealth distribution, and in particular, some data on Canada’s wealthiest 1%, both by age group, and wealth levels in general.
I wasn’t able to find the data in any one source, so, I did a Google search. I was able to find data on income levels of Canada’s wealthiest 1%, but, NOT wealth levels, and there’s a big difference of course. Income is the amount earned in a given year, whereas wealth is the combined gross assets held, in aggregate, less debt.
The data on income levels is easy enough to find, but, the data on wealth isn’t as straight forward.
Wealth-X did an extensive study on the Top 10 Ulta-High-Net-Worth Countries (UHNW), and they listed the number of UHNW individuals by country. Since their data had many other columns, I extracted and reproduced the data into the following chart:
The WealthX study also reviewed the breakdown of wealth into three separate categories in aggregate, as follows:
- UHNW (Ultra High Net Worth) – Having assets of $30 million USD or greater
- VHNW (Very High Net Worth) – Having assets from $5 million USD to $30 USD or greater
- Wealthy – Assets from $1 million to $5 million
Since their study did not do the wealth breakdown by country, I used the worldwide aggregate information that they provided, which looks as follows, to create a chart for Canada specifically. The data is as follows:
- Wealthy – $1 million to $5 million USD = 88.2% of the wealthy population (above $1 million USD in wealth)
- VHNW – $5 million to $30 million USD = 10.6%
- UHNW – $30 million USD and greater = 1.2%
With the above data in hand, I was about to extract the following information on the number of Canadians in each wealth category:
Number of Wealthy Canadians by Each Wealth Category
- Wealthy = 764,033 individuals in Canada have between $1 million and $5 million USD
- VHNW = 91,823 individuals in Canada have between $5 million and $30 million USD
- UHNW = 10,395 individuals in Canada have greater than $30 million USD
Then, combining data extracted from the list of countries by population, I was able to create a chart for all of the major countries, however, since this study is on the wealth of the top 1% of Canadians, I removed the data for all of the other countries to simplify the chart below.
As a summary, and from a breakdown perspective, Canada’s wealthiest breaks down as follows:
- Wealthy = 2.04% of Canada’s population has between $1 million and $5 million USD
- VHNW = 0.25% of Canada’s population has between $5 million and $30 million USD
- UHNW = 0.03% of Canada’s population has greater than $30 million USD
Extrapolating the above data, and to answer the question:
How Much Wealth Do You Need in Canada to Become Part of the 1% Wealthiest in 2019: In order to make it into the top 1% of Canada’s wealthiest in 2020, you will need approximately $7,000,000 USD, or approximately $9,000,000 CAD.
From an age distribution, Canada’s wealth breaks down as follows (source Statistics Canada)
- Under 35 years = 6% of all assets
- Ages 35 to 44 = 12.3% of all assets
- Ages 45 to 54 = 22% of all assets
- Ages 55 to 64 = 30.5% of all assets
- Ages 65 and above = 29% of all assets
It’s no surprise that the wealthiest cohort is the age group of 55 to 64 holding slightly over 30% of the assets, followed by those ages 65 and older with slightly under 30% of all the assets.
Now, the final and remaining question, how much wealth do you need in 2019 in each age category to make it into the top 1%? Now, here’s where things get tricky because this data doesn’t exist, so, I had to make some assumptions.
Based on what I wrote above, to make it into the top 1% of Canada’s wealthiest, you need to have approximately $9,000,000 in combined wealth, and that includes all assets less debts.
From an income perspective, to make it into the top 1% of income earners in Canada, according to Statistics Canada, requires a salary of $225,409, or, roughly 39 times the overall wealth number of the top 1% in Canada. Interestingly, the numbers vary quite considerably in the US where the top 1% of income is $421,926 USD.
In order to come up with a reasonable income to wealth multiplier in Canada for all age groups, I had to make some assumptions, and as such, I worked off some data that a financial blogger in the USA used, and did some backward math to make it equivalent in Canadian terms. In his post, he created what he called a minimum ideal wealth multiplier, but, since average income levels in Canada vary from those in the US, as do wealth amounts, I adjusted for these variables in the wealth multiplier, but, kept the ratios of age to salary the same.
To make it into the top 1% of wealth, by age group, in Canada, requires the following wealth (note, I’ve provided only a few age groups, you can refer to the chart for all age groups):
- Age 25 = $405,736 – Total wealth to make it into the top 1%
- Age 35 = $1,622,944 – Total wealth to make it into the top 1%
- Age 45 = $3,651,625 – Total wealth to make it into the top 1%
- Age 55 = $6,491,779 – Total wealth to make it into the top 1%
- Age 65 = $9,737,668 – Total wealth to make it into the top 1%
Now, for those of you reading this wondering how you can make it into the top 1%, I wrote a post titled: What Net Worth Makes You Rich? The Average Net Worth to Make it Into the Top 1% and How to Get There, and in the post, I detailed both the ways and the mindset that’s required in order to make it into the top 1%, in particular, and number one, taking some significant and calculated risks in business.
There’s a direct relationship between risk-taking and wealth creation … the more risk you take, and the better you become at taking risk, the bigger the strategic bets you make. The larger the bets you make, and the more these bets pay off, the greater the wealth you create.
Of course, bets could go bad, but, if you understand your market, and take calculated bets while mitigating your risk wherever possible, you will eventually increase your overall wealth.
It would be foolish of course to create wealth without proper saving and investing, so, those are of course important variables as well. Again, if you want to read the post, you can here.
Good luck with your wealth-creating journey.
If you enjoyed this post, you might also enjoy this one: Profit Isn’t a Disease. It’s the By-Product of a Well-Run Company. If You’re Not Yet Profitable, Fix It or Get a Job.
And this one: How Do You Know When It’s Time to Sell Your Business? It’s Not All About the Money.
You should also consider subscribing to my blog. I publish one article a week on small business and wealth creation. You can subscribe here.
Also, I published a book during the summer of 2018, “The Kickass Entrepreneur’s Guide to Investing, Three Simple Steps to Create Massive Wealth with Your Business’s Profits.” It was number 1 on Amazon in both the business and non-fiction sections. You can get a free copy here.
