It’s not considered polite to ask someone how much they make, but income data—even though the latest numbers only go up to 2024—can help us assess how an economy is performing over time and how income levels vary across the country.

With regard to the latter, Alberta continued to sit atop the provincial leaderboard in 2024. At $85,300, the median after-tax income* of households** in Alberta was the highest of any province and $9,800 higher than the national figure.

The median after-tax income among Alberta families was $115,900 ($108,900 nationally)  in 2024 while it was $44,900 ($41,000 nationally) for unattached individuals.  

The reasons for Alberta’s outsized household income level include a relatively younger population (and, in turn, a larger proportion of people of working age); the highest employment rate; the highest average wages; and the highest level of labour productivity.

Having the highest median household income of any province doesn’t mean everyone in Alberta is swimming in money; many households report annual income well below the median and are struggling to make ends meet. Alberta does, however, have the smallest percentage of residents in low income at 11.3% in 2024 compared to 12.5% nationally.

The cooldown

Alberta’s strong overall showing on the income front highlights that it has a lot of economic muscle. Alberta's income advantage has, however, narrowed.

Adjusting for inflation, household income in Alberta has fallen from its 2015 peak and the gap between it and the national median has gotten smaller (see the chart below).

There were some bumps along the way, but for the most part, income levels were on the rise in Alberta from the late 1990s through to 2015, helped along by productivity growth, a natural gas boom, and the construction of massive oil sands projects that saw oil and gas capital spending reach an all-time high in 2014.

The pace of oil sands project construction was going to slow at some point, but the oil price crash and the deep provincial recession that followed in 2015-16 sent median, inflation-adjusted income levels lower starting in 2016.

The province then ran into major pipeline constraints that curtailed growth in the oil and gas industry and the overall economy. With oil and gas and related employment declining, there was a shift into service sector employment with lower average earnings and an increase in the unemployment rate. This put downward pressure on the median income in the province.   

Government transfers related to the pandemic temporarily sent the median income up in 2020 with levels on a roughly flat trajectory since.

While the gap between Alberta and the country as a whole remains significant, it has narrowed and is roughly back to where it was 20 years ago.
 

What happens next?

Alberta’s economic growth outpaced the national average last year and is forecast to do so again this year. This growth will help support household income levels and sustain the gap between Alberta and the country as a whole.

The unemployment rate remains elevated, but we see it falling to an average of around 6.5% this year as a cooldown in population growth reduces the influx of job seekers. As the labour market rebalances, we also see a gradual improvement in wage growth.

However, to see a return to strong growth in real household incomes in Alberta and Canada we need to address flagging productivity. This involves a range of things including better innovation outcomes, scaling of business in Canada, and a pick up in business investment through an acceleration of major projects.

*Market income plus government transfers less income tax.

**Combines families and unattached individuals.

Answer to the previous trivia question: The Canadian Department of National Defence was officially created on January 1, 1923 by amalgamating the Department of Militia and Defence, the Department of Naval Services, and the Air Board.

Today’s trivia question: Which province has the highest percentage of residents living in low-income households?