Wealth inequality

René Morissette, Xuelin Zhang and Marie Drolet

• The growth in wealth inequality between 1984 and 1999 was associated with substantial declines in real average and median wealth for some groups, such as young couples with children and recent immigrants.
• Only families at the top end of the wealth distribution increased their share of total net worth between 1984 and 1999.
• Wealth inequality increased more among non-elderly couples with children and among lone-parent families than among unattached individuals and non-elderly couples with no children.
• Real median wealth and real average wealth rose much more among families whose major income recipient was a university graduate than among other families; they both fell among families whose major income recipient was aged between 25 and 34, and increased among those whose major income recipient was 55 or over.
• The aging of the Canadian population over the period had two important effects: it tended to increase average wealth and to reduce wealth inequality.

The authors are with the Business and Labour Market Analysis Division. René Morissette can be reached at (613) 951-3608 or rene.morissette@statcan.gc.ca; Xuelin Zhang at (613) 951-4295 or xuelin.zhang@statcan.gc.ca; Marie Drolet at (613) 951-5691 or marie.drolet@statcan.gc.ca.