Amount Canadians owe relative to income continued to tick higher in third quarter

A person uses the calculator app on their phone and works on a spreadsheet in a photo illustration made in Toronto, on Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sammy Kogan (Sammy Kogan)

OTTAWA — Statistics Canada says the amount Canadians owe relative to their income climbed higher for the fourth consecutive quarter.

The agency says the ratio of household credit market debt as a proportion of household disposable income was 176.7 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis, up from 176.3 per cent in the second quarter as debt continued to grow faster than income.

In other words, Statistics Canada says there was $1.77 in credit market debt for every dollar of household disposable income in the third 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 — was 14.64 per cent in the third quarter, down from 14.68 in the second quarter.

The results came as the pace of household credit market borrowing eased to a seasonally adjusted $33.5 billion in the third quarter, compared with $34.5 billion in the second quarter.

Mortgage demand dropped to $23.4 billion from $27.8 billion in the second quarter, while demand for non-mortgage debt increased to $10.1 billion from $6.7 billion in the second quarter.

The seasonally adjusted stock of household credit market debt grew 1.0 per cent to nearly $3.2 trillion in the third quarter of 2025, with mortgages accounting for almost 75 per cent of the total.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 11, 2025.