A May 2025 TD Securities census of exchange-traded funds for Canadian investors shows an astronomically high 1,647 funds with total assets of $560.8-billion. Here’s some investing intel to be drawn from analyzing these ETF assets:
Equity funds rule
There are 981 equity ETF – no other category comes close. Total assets come in at $341-billion, or almost 61 per cent of total assets.
U.S. equity funds rule
The number of equity funds breaks down like this - 534 U.S., 188 Canada and the rest focused on international or North America.The asset breakdown is also U.S.-tilted - $148-billion for U.S. equity, $116-billion for Canadian, $70.7-billion for international and $6.4-billion for North America. International equity funds are hot these days, but total assets in this sector remain comparatively small overall.
Aggregate bond funds are most popular
There are 430 fixed income ETFs with total assets of $170-billion, or 28.7 per cent of the total. Aggregate bond funds, which blend government and corporate bonds and easily suffice as your entire bond exposure, account for almost $69-billion in assets. Corporate bond funds are the next most popular category, with assets of $32-billion.
Money market and cash funds are a force
Cash and money market funds flourished when interest rates peaked a couple of years ago and remain popular despite rate declines. Almost $34-billion sits in 28 funds in this group.
Yield-Enhanced funds are gaining popularity
Covered call funds and others in this category typically use financial instruments called derivatives to produce higher income flows than you can easily get from stocks via dividends and from bonds via interest. There are 242 yield-enhanced funds with assets of $28-5-billion.
Crypto funds are still finding their way
There are 57 crypto ETFs, but total assets come to a modest $8.2-billion.
ESG funds have a following
OK, a small following. But the waning of interest in socially responsible funds should not be overstated. Some investors still want funds focusing on companies that score well on environmental, social and governance factors. There are 105 ESG funds with total assets of almost $19-billion.
Index investing rules
The ETF business started with cheap index-tracking funds, and this category continues to dominate. A total of 806 ETFs use indexing as opposed to some form of active management, with total assets of almost $380-billion. That’s almost 68 per cent of all ETF assets.