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A Comparison of GDP per Capita in Canada and the United States from 1994 to 2005
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This study compares gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in Canada and in the United States from 1994 to 2005. It shows that the amount of economic output per person in Canada is still lower than in the United States, but the gap between the two countries has narrowed since the turn of the millennium. In 2005, Canada's GDP per capita was 84.3% of U.S. GDP per capita, up from the low point of 81.0% in 1998.
This study also examines differences in labour productivity and so-called 'work intensity' between Canada and the United States — two factors that give rise to differences in GDP per capita. Labour productivity is the amount of GDP produced per hour worked, while work intensity is the number of hours worked per capita and comes from the product of two variables — hours worked per job and the number of jobs per capita that are generated by the economy.
The impact of these two factors on relative GDP per capita has been changing over time. Since 2000, labour productivity in Canada has declined compared to levels in the United States, while relative work intensity in Canada has increased dramatically. From 1994 to 1999, hours worked per capita in Canada averaged 88.1% of hours worked per capita in the United States. Since 2000, this gap in work intensity has narrowed substantially. By 2005, hours worked per capita in Canada stood at 94.7% of the U.S. level.
These gains in work intensity have more than offset recent declines in Canada's relative productivity — resulting in slight improvements in Canada's GDP per capita relative to the United States since 2000.
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