Country Overview

Wages and Prices in Canada

Canada offers a high-income Americas reference where the common wage year and consumer-price categories remain visibly separate, rather than being blended into a single score.

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Wage history

How Wages Have Changed in Canada

Explore Canada’s PPP-adjusted annual wage history using a reported range rather than a filled-in series.

PPP-adjusted annual wage (USD)2000–2025 · touch or hover points for the selected range

Price levels

Price Levels in Canada

Compare everyday price levels using the United States benchmark of 100.

Overall

86.00Below U.S.14.0% below U.S.

Food

108.00Above U.S.8.0% above U.S.

Clothing

118.00Above U.S.18.0% above U.S.

Housing

83.10Below U.S.16.9% below U.S.

Health

62.20Below U.S.37.8% below U.S.

Transport

103.00Above U.S.3.0% above U.S.

Recreation

92.00Below U.S.8.0% below U.S.

Restaurants

97.60Below U.S.2.4% below U.S.

How to Read This View

Use 100 as the reference

The United States is fixed at 100 for every category. A value of 86 means that Canada’s price level is about 14.0% below the U.S. benchmark, while a value of 118 means it is approximately 18% higher.

Compare categories, not household bills

Each row represents a separate spending category. The values show relative price levels rather than the actual amount a household spends. A higher clothing index does not necessarily mean that total living costs are higher by the same amount.

Check the selected year

The year buttons update all displayed categories together. Missing observations are shown as unavailable and are never replaced with values from another year.

Relative context

Canada in Context

See how Canada’s wage and selected price level compare with the OECD median and the United States.

Average Annual Wage

Canada$67,901

OECD Median$60,690

United States$86,977

Selected Price Level

Canada86.00

OECD Median67.25

United States100

Read the placement

Canada’s 2025 PPP-adjusted annual wage is 11.9% above the OECD median. Its 2024 Overall price index of 86 is 14.0% below the U.S. benchmark, meaning that it combines a higher wage with a lower price level in this dataset. Wage and price observations refer to separately labelled years and should not be read as a household affordability score.

Country note

Understanding Wages and Prices in Canada

Canada is shown with its current common-year wage and a separate price-year label. The chart exposes the selected historical span without interpolation, while the page avoids converting a measured change into a causal story.

The highest displayed category indices for Canada are Clothing at 118.00, Food at 108.00, and Transport at 103.00, while the overall index remains below the United States reference. Those measures describe relative prices, not an estimate of a household budget or a recommendation about where to live.