Nunavut tops Canada in household income growth: StatsCan

Nunavut recorded the highest median household income growth in Canada between 2005 and 2015 and the second highest median household income, Statistics Canada says.

That’s according to data released Sept. 13 by Statistics Canada from the 2016 census on the incomes of Canadians in 2015 and over the 2005 to 2015 period.

Statistics Canada found that resource-based provinces and regions, led by Nunavut, and Saskatchewan, enjoyed the highest income growth in Canada

Nunavut, whose median household income rose by 36.7 per cent between 2005 and 2015, slighlty more than Saskatchewan, whose median household income rose by 36.5 per cent over the same period.

Nunavut saw the highest rate of growth in median household incomes over that decade, from $71,285 in 2005 to $97,441 in 2015.

Median means “in the middle.” Nunavut’s median household income of $97,441 for 2015 means that 50 per cent of all households received less than that figure, while 50 per cent received more than that figure.

The dollar-amount for Nunavut’s median household income came in second after the Northwest Territories, where the median annual income stood at $117,688 in 2015.

The overall median income growth rate of the territories was 22.4 per cent, second only to the growth rate recorded on the Prairies, which rose by 25.7 per cent.

The big median income growth in Nunavut reflected increased numbers of workers in the resource sector and government sector over that decade, StatsCan said.

The NWT had the second-highest median income growth in the North at 24.5 per cent, followed by Yukon at 18.9 per cent.

Statistics Canada said those numbers reflect the boom in the resource sector that occurred between 2005 and 2015, prior to the oil price slowdown in 2016 and 2017.

On this StatsCan graph you can see how Nunavut ranks with respect to households’ income growth and median income.