How Canadians Spend Their Money

In 2011, the average Canadian spent $73,457 — 75% or $55,151 of which was spent on goods and services such as shelter, food and transportation.

That makes a 3.1% year-over-year increase in total household expenditures, says Statistics Canada’s “Survey of Household Spending, 2011.” The amount spent on goods and services was up 2.7% from 2010, slightly less than the 2.9% rate of inflation as measured by the consumer price index.

Of the spending on goods and services, the greatest chunk went to shelter with an average expenditure of $15,198. Not surprisingly, homeowners spent more than renters — $17,123 vs $11,320 — which made up close to the same percentage of  their total expenditures, about 30%.

Next came transportation, with an average expenditure of $11,229 with $10,153 spend on private transportation vs the slim amount spent on public transportation. Food was third with $7,795 the average amount spent on food.

To provide perspective, StatsCan divides the population into five equal income groups.  “The 20% of households with the lowest incomes spent an average of $29,129 in 2011,” explains StatsCan in its release. “Of this total, 50.5% went to food, shelter and clothing and accessories. Income taxes represented 1.2% of their total expenditures.”

On the other hand, the 20% of households with the highest incomes spent on average $143,519; of that they allocated 28.9% to food, shelter and clothing and accessories, while 27.8% went to income taxes.