Household debt-to-income ratio rose in Q4 for fifth straight quarter: StatCan

A person works on a spreadsheet in a photo illustration made in Toronto. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sammy Kogan

OTTAWA — Statistics Canada says the amount Canadians owed relative to their income climbed for the fifth consecutive quarter.

The agency says the ratio of household credit market debt as a proportion of disposable income rose to 177.2 per cent in the fourth quarter on a seasonally adjusted basis.

In other words, Statistics Canada says there was $1.77 in credit market debt for every dollar of household disposable income in the fourth quarter.

The household debt service ratio -- measured as total obligated payments of principal and interest on credit market debt as a proportion of household disposable income -- edged down to 14.57 per cent in the fourth quarter, from 14.61 per cent in the third quarter.

The results came as the pace of household credit market borrowing eased slightly to a seasonally adjusted $36.2 billion in the fourth quarter, from $33.5 billion in the previous quarter.

Mortgage demand rose to $28.7 billion from $23.4 billion in the third quarter, while demand for non-mortgage debt fell to $7.5 billion from $10.6 billion in the third quarter.

The seasonally adjusted stock of household credit market debt topped $3.2 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2025 -- up 4.4 per cent from a year ago.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 16, 2026.