Income percentile by age in Canada

A total income of $116,500 or more in 2023 put an individual tax filer in the top 10% nationally; the top 5% starts at $152,700 and the top 1% at $293,800 (Statistics Canada, high-income tax filers, Table 11-10-0056-01). The bar moves by where you live: the top 10% starts at $130,700 in Alberta and $119,900 in Ontario, but $96,800 in New Brunswick; within Calgary it is $138,500. Those are published thresholds, not estimates.

Judge it against your own age band, because the distribution shifts a lot with age. Median total income in 2023 was $50,800 at 25–34, $63,300 at 35–44, $64,500 at 45–54, $52,300 at 55–64 and $38,500 at 65 and over (Statistics Canada T1 Family File). The share earning $100,000 or more runs from 12% of 25–34-year-olds to 26% of 45–54-year-olds. Enter your age and income above for your percentile.

Statistics Canada publishes, for each age band and sex, how many tax filers had total income at or above twelve rungs — $5,000, $10,000, $15,000, $20,000, $25,000, $35,000, $50,000, $75,000, $100,000, $150,000, $200,000 and $250,000 (Table 11-10-0008-01, 2023). Your percentile at exactly one of those rungs is published arithmetic: 100 minus the share at or above it. Between rungs, this page interpolates on a log scale of income and labels the result ≈ (modelled). Above $250,000 it reports only what the data supports — the share of your band at or above $250,000 — rather than inventing finer percentiles.

Across all ages, 15% of Canadian tax filers had total income of $100,000 or more in 2023, so $100,000 sits at about the 85th percentile nationally. By age it is a different rung: 12% of 25–34-year-olds reach it, 23% of 35–44s and 26% of 45–54s. Men reach it more often than women in every band (19% vs 11% overall).

Before tax, and it covers individual tax filers (and dependants with income) — not households, and not only workers: pensioners, students with part-time income and investors are all in the base, which is why the 65-and-over and under-25 bands look so different from mid-career bands. Total income means employment, self-employment, investment, pension and government-transfer income combined. If you want a household or after-tax comparison, this page is not the right yardstick; for where your household stands on wealth rather than income, use the net-worth percentile calculator.

In 2023 the top 1% of tax filers started at $293,800 nationally, but at $334,500 in Alberta, $313,100 in Ontario, $304,600 in British Columbia and $260,800 in Quebec, down to $208,000 in Prince Edward Island. Cities are higher still: $424,500 in Calgary and $373,200 in Toronto. These are Statistics Canada's own area-specific thresholds.