Statistics Canada says the amount Canadians owed relative to their income climbed for the fifth consecutive quarter.
The agency says the ratio of household credit market debt as a proportion of disposable income rose to 177.2 per cent in the fourth quarter on a seasonally adjusted basis.
In other words, Statistics Canada says there was $1.77 in credit market debt for every dollar of household disposable income in the fourth quarter.
The household debt service ratio – measured as total obligated payments of principal and interest on credit market debt as a proportion of household disposable income – edged down to 14.57 per cent in the fourth quarter, from 14.61 per cent in the third quarter.
Opinion: Rather than paying down debt, Canadians are happily borrowing even deeper
The results came as the pace of household credit market borrowing eased slightly to a seasonally adjusted $36.2-billion in the fourth quarter, from $33.5-billion in the previous quarter.
Mortgage demand rose to $28.7-billion from $23.4-billion in the third quarter, while demand for non-mortgage debt fell to $7.5-billion from $10.6-billion in the third quarter.
The seasonally adjusted stock of household credit market debt topped $3.2-trillion in the fourth quarter of 2025 – up 4.4 per cent from a year ago.