Median Household Income in Toronto 1990 - 2012

Update: Toronto median household income for 2012 is $73,300 according to demographia (pdf). Below is the data from demographia. Note, that CMHC and Demographia have different values. 

Update 2: Time series data for average and median incomes in Toronto 1975-2013 see here. 

It took me awhile to find a good data set on a median income in Toronto and when I did I was scared by it. First I thought that the data was wrong as the numbers were not what I expected. The data was from CMHC (.xls). It summarized the real median household after tax income for metropolitan area of Toronto from 1990 to 2010. The incomes were in 2010 dollars. Note there were no data available for 2011 or 2012 yet. Below are the highlights:

Real median after-tax household income in Toronto CMA (all households)

1990 - $55,400
2000 - $61,000
2010 - $65,900

Income growth between 1990 and 2010 was 18.95%. Between 2000 and 2010 8.03%. So far this doesn't look too bad, but let's zoom in a little bit and see how specific households did - those that own property and those that rent.

Real median after-tax household income in Toronto CMA (owner households)


1990 - $73,800
2000 - $74,600
2010 - $78,800

Income growth between 1990 and 2010 was 6.78%. Between 2000 and 2010 5.63%. Finally, let's take a look at renters who did the worst.

Real median after-tax household income in Toronto CMA (renter households)


1990 - $38,700
2000 - $40,500
2010 - $38,200

Income growth between 1990 and 2010 was -1.29%. Between 2000 and 2010 -5.68%. Yep, according to this data, renters now make less money than they did 20 years ago. Scary isn't it?

By now you should probably be wondering how come the incomes for all households went up by almost 19% in 20 years, while owners income increased only by 7% and renter households had a negative growth. I don't really know the answer to that question as I am not a statistician. This is one of the reasons I thought the data might be wrong. However, if I were to speculate, it might have something to do with the fact that now more people own a place than 20 years ago. Below, is the plot of Toronto real median household after tax income.

You might be curious to see how median incomes looks versus home prices in Toronto, so below is one such chart. Though be warned that the below chart is not the most accurate for few reasons. First the income data is for Toronto CMA, while the average home prices are for the City of Toronto. Both however are adjusted for inflation. Median incomes are in 2010 dollars and prices are in 2012 dollars. So expect some error there. Nevertheless, I made this graph just to show you the actual trend. 

Historic Toronto median household income for: 

2006 - $66,900
2007 - $66,300
2008 - $67,100
2009 - $68,600
2010 - $74,800
2011 - $73,600
2012 - $73.300

Source: Demographia