Charts of the Week: Hey big spender! What do Albertans spend more on?

The household accounts from Statistics Canada are a gold mine of data, telling us how spending and income varies across the country. In 2024, Alberta continued to rank higher than any other province on disposable income and second (to B.C.) on spending.

A detailed review of the data shows that Alberta households had higher average spending across all spending categories.  This makes sense. Most goods are what economists call ‘normal’, meaning as income rises spending goes up. In percentage terms, the largest gap was for spending on recreation (20% higher than national average), housing and utilities (13%), and dining out and accommodation (11%).

Spending per household grew only 2% last year (less than inflation) following much stronger growth coming out of COVID. More was spent on housing, but Albertans cut back in other areas like clothing and home furnishing, weighed down by higher interest rates. Alberta had similar levels of overall spending growth (5.4% vs 5.3% nationally), but that was due to more households being added (spending per household rose faster in the rest of Canada).

2025 has started on a more upbeat note, with spending accelerating to 3.5% y/y growth in the first quarter (latest data).