Cost of Living in Canada: Guides by City, Province and Household

This is the directory of our guides to the cost of living in Canada: what households spend on rent, food and bills, how costs compare between provinces and cities, how Canada compares with the US and the UK, and where an income or a savings balance sits. Every guide renders its figures from Statistics Canada, CMHC, government and industry sources (such as CREA and Rentals.ca), with the date they cover. Five national figures set the scale:

Rents, vacancy rates and rent rules for each city are covered in more depth in our rental market data, sales and prices in the housing market reports, and income statistics in the average income guides. To turn these costs into a plan, see budgeting.

Household costs across Canada

• Average rent in Canada: what new tenants pay on listings and the average across existing rentals in CMHC’s survey, nationally, by city and by province.
• Average house price in Canada: average and benchmark home prices for major cities and every province, the income needed to buy and how prices have moved.
• Average grocery bill: household spending on food from stores by household type and province, prices for common items and the latest food price forecast.
• Average utility bills: what households spend on electricity, natural gas and water in each province, with current electricity and gas rates.
• Average cell phone bill: what the big carriers earn per customer, plan prices by data size and household phone spending by province.
• Average internet bill: home internet prices by speed from the federal price study, household spending by province and how Canada compares abroad.
• Average household expenses: what a household spends in a year on shelter, transportation, food and everything else, by household type.
• Cost of living alone: one-bedroom rents and a monthly budget for one person in major cities, the income each needs, and how much more one person pays than a couple.

Provinces and cities

Comparing provinces and cities

• Cost of living by province: household spending, home prices, rents, income and sales tax, child care, groceries, electricity and car insurance in all ten provinces.
• Most affordable cities in Canada: cities ranked by average one-bedroom asking rent, with home prices, basic budgets and what a salary leaves over in affordable cities.
• Best cities to live in Canada: cities compared on rent, home prices, unemployment, climate and crime, with sections for families and remote workers, so you can weigh them on what matters to you.

City guides

City against city

• Toronto vs Vancouver: home prices, rents, take-home pay, transit, utilities, groceries and child care side by side.
• Calgary vs Edmonton: home prices, rents, property tax, incomes, transit, utilities and child care side by side.
• Ottawa vs Montreal: rents, home prices, take-home pay, child care, transit, electricity and tuition side by side.

Canada compared with other countries

• Canada vs US cost of living: home prices, health insurance costs, income tax on the same salary, child care, groceries, gas and pay, converted at the Bank of Canada exchange rate.
• Canada vs UK cost of living: rents and home prices by city, groceries, transit, fuel, healthcare charges, taxes and pay, converted at the Bank of Canada exchange rate.

Inflation and tariffs

• Canada’s inflation rate: the current CPI, monthly and yearly rates over time, core inflation, prices by category and province, and how inflation reaches wages, savings and benefits.
• Inflation calculator: what an amount from one year is worth in another, from Statistics Canada’s annual average CPI, with the formula and a worked example.
• How to protect savings from inflation: what a real return is and how to work it out, and how savings accounts, GICs, Real Return Bonds, stocks, real estate and gold each relate to inflation.
• How US tariffs affect Canadians: which US tariffs and Canadian counter-tariffs are in force, and how they reach grocery bills, car and appliance prices, jobs and savings.

Where your income sits

• Am I considered low income?: Canada’s three low-income lines (the Market Basket Measure, the Low Income Measure and the Low Income Cut-off) by household size, with the year each covers.
• Am I considered middle class?: the income range that counts as middle income for each household size, with salary examples.
• Average income by age: average and median income for each age group, percentiles by age, the gap between women and men, and income by age in each province and major city.
• Average savings by age: what Canadians hold in savings and investments, bank deposits, RRSPs and TFSAs, by age group.