Posted on February 6, 2013 @ 03:18:00 AM by Paul Meagher
Statistics Canada has release a recent update on the composition of high-income Canadians. The cutoff for defining a high income Canadian is someone with an annual income of $201,400 or higher. This conveniently splits the distribution of Tax filers into the 1% earning this amount or above, and the 99% of Canadians earning less than this amount. Given this definition of a high-income Canadian, here is a table giving the composition of these high-income Canadians:
One interesting observation from this report is that the "income of top filers was increasingly dependent on their jobs, rather than on investments". The fact that Statistics Canada feels the need to point this out is probably because in other countries high income earners derive the majority of their income from investments rather than wages. It is possible that policy in Canada needs to change to incentivise these top income earners to invest in small businesses, a position that the National Angel Capital Association has been advocating for many years.
Another interesting observation is where in Canada these high income earners are located:
In 2010, four provinces – Ontario, Alberta, Quebec and British Columbia – accounted for 92% of the 254,700 people in the top 1%.
Ontario had 110,300, followed by Alberta with 52,200, Quebec at 42,600 and British Columbia with 29,500.
Between 1990 and 2010, Alberta's share of the top 1% of filers doubled from 10% to 20%, while Ontario's proportion fell from 51% to 43%.
The areas of strongest angel investment activity in Canada corresponds to areas where high-income earners are most concentrated. In recent years, Alberta has become a leader in the angel investment industry with one of the leading organizations being Venture Alberta.
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