OTTAWA, June 24 (UPI) -- The net worth of the average Canadian rose 1.2 percent in the first quarter of 2008 to $171,000 per capita, the Statistics Canada agency reported Tuesday.
The increase was up from $169,300 at the end of 2007, and collectively meant the country's national net worth was $5.7 trillion dollars, StatsCan said.
In the same quarter last year, the increase was 2.3 percent.
Residential real estate remained a major factor in the increase in national wealth, accounting for over one-third of the gain, the report said.
However, credit and mortgage liabilities continued to grow faster than net worth in the first quarter, and "households had 19.6 cents of debt for every dollar of net worth, and household debt amounted to 123.8 percent of personal disposable income," the agency said.
Canada's population was 33.3 million as of June 2007, the agency said.
