credit and debt
MONTHLY BALANCE-ING ACT
Not only are monthly credit card liabilities at an all-time high in Canada—and rising—but so too are the population-adjusted amounts owing.
Credit cards are well known for being easy to use, often coming with enticing rewards, but also having some of the highest interest rates on available credit. So the fact household credit card liabilities in Canada have been increasing, reaching their highest level ever at the end of 2023 at $105 billion, could be cause for concern. We should note that Statistics Canada tracks credit card loans that are both interest and non-interest bearing, so the increase will be,
at least partially, from people paying their bill every month. Still, the increase is noteworthy and what’s more, even when we adjust for population growth the trend holds: per-capita credit card debt has been consistently rising and hit its highest level ever in Canada (going back to 1990) at the end of 2023, up 9% in the last year alone. That per-capita credit card debt is rising even as per-capita retail spending is declining, is another indicator of the difficulties consumers have been facing.
ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT PLASTIC
$3,500
20.0%
pre-pandemic average $2,773
$3,192
18.0%
$3,000
16.0%
$2,500
14.0%
13.2%
12.1%
12.0%
12.0%
11.8%
12.0%
11.5%
11.1%
$2,000
10.0%
$1,500
8.0%
6.0%
$1,000
4.0%
$500
2.0%
$0
0
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
CREDIT CARD DEBT SHARE OF ALL NON MORTGAGE DEBT
PER CAPITA CREDIT CARD DEBT RIGHT AXIS
DATA: MONTHLY PER-CAPITA CREDIT CARD DEBT & ANNUAL SHARE OF CREDIT CARD DEBT, CANADA
SOURCE: STATISTICS CANADA. TABLE 36-10-0639-01
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