1.1 million
Number of Canadian millionaires
The millionaires among us
Canada already boasts an outsized population of rich people on a comparative basis, and Credit Suisse says we’ll produce hundreds of thousands more over the next five years.
Canada is now home to more than 1.1 million millionaires, the bank said in its latest global wealth report. Their ranks will swell by 563,000 by 2021, it projected.
The number of millionaires in Britain, Japan and Australia should also rise by more than 500,000, Credit Suisse said.
In Canada, wealth per adult rose at an average annual pace of 4.9 per cent from 2000 to 2016, but has been increasing at a faster 6.5 per cent when measured since 2010, according to the report.
“The small dip in wealth during the global financial crisis, and subsequent moderate growth in domestic currency units, is characteristic of the experience in several other major economies,” Credit Suisse said.
“While Canada's exports are not limited to commodities, it is a resource-intensive economy, and has suffered from low commodity prices in recent years,” the bank added.
“The economy was hit hard in 2015 by the drop in the world price of oil, and has struggled to recover. However, low interest rates have been maintained, and have helped to stimulate house prices in the major urban centres.”
Some interesting bits from the annual Credit Suisse report:
Wealth per adult in Canada stands at $270,200 (U.S.), 22 per cent below that of the United States but “more equally distributed.” On a percentage basis, Canada has fewer people whose wealth is less than $10,000, and more whose wealth tops $100,000.
Canadians have more than half of their wealth in financial assets.
In terms of the number of millionaires, Canada ranks No. 8, behind the U.S., Japan, Britain, Germany, France, China and Italy.
And this: “It has 1.1 millionaires, and accounts for 4 per cent of the top 1 per cent of global wealth-holders, despite having only 0.6 per cent of the world's adult population.”
How to join them
We’re always looking for ways to become millionaires. Here are some:
Join the Liberal Party and hold a fundraiser.
Join Postmedia. But first ask for a retention bonus.
Offer to privatize Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway, and tell Mayor John Tory you’ll split the profits.
Buy a fixer-upper bungalow with no private drive in a seedy Toronto neighbourhood. Actually, that will cost you $1-million.
Buy a house in Vancouver for $1.5-million. And wait.