Almost four in 10 Canadians took on more debt last year, survey shows

Almost one in four Canadians said their debts increased in the last year and more than half said their financial commitments have increased their stress levels.

The cost of living is catching up to a large chunk of Canadians, with almost one in four taking on new debt in the last year, a new report has found.

The survey by the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy (OSB) and the Canadian Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Professionals (CAIRP) also found more than half of Canadians (54 per cent) are struggling to pay bills, and 4.2 out of every 1,000 adult Canadians filed for insolvency in 2024, the highest rate since 2019.

“Why are we seeing debt accumulate to a point that insolvencies are rising? It’s because spending has consistently been outstripping income for some time now,” said Moshe Lander, an economist at Concordia University.

“That’s maybe the more worrying sign. It’s not the credit itself, it’s that a lot of people don’t find a path to be on the other side of the ledger, even when they get into the working years of their life.”

This comes as credit agency TransUnion said Tuesday that total consumer debt in Canada rose to $673 billion in the third quarter of 2025, up 18 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Car loans were the biggest driver of that rising debt. In the third quarter of last year, the average Canadian with a car loan owed $29,138. That number jumped 4.32 per cent to $30,396 in 2025, TransUnion said.

And the average credit card balance across Canada rose 1.9 per cent to $4,652.

That number might increase further as Canadians head into the holiday season, when credit card debt typically peaks, a report by Equifax Canada said Wednesday.