Survey of Financial Security (SFS)

Detailed information for 2025

The purpose of the survey is to collect information from a sample of Canadian households on their assets, debts, employment, income and education. The SFS provides a comprehensive picture of the financial health of Canadians. Information is collected on the value of all major financial and non-financial assets and on the money owing on mortgages, vehicles, credit cards, student loans and other debts.

• Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s)
• Description
• Data sources and methodology

Description

The SFS provides a comprehensive picture of the net worth of Canadians. Information is collected on the value of all major financial and non-financial assets and on the money owing on mortgages, vehicles, credit cards, student loans and other debts. A family's net worth can be thought of as the amount of money they would be left with if they sold all of their assets and paid off all of their debts.

The survey data are used by government departments to help formulate policy, the private sector and by individuals and families to compare their wealth with those of similar types of families.

Collection period: September 8, 2025 to December 20, 2025

Subjects

• Household assets, debts and wealth
• Income, pensions, spending and wealth

Data sources and methodology

Target population

The target population for the SFS is families across the ten provinces of Canada.
Excluded from the survey are:
- the territories,
- those living on reserves and other Indigenous settlements,
- official representatives of foreign countries living in Canada and their families,
- members of religious and other communal colonies,
- members of the Canadian Forces living in military bases, and
- people living full time in institutions, for example, inmates of penal institutions and chronic care patients living in hospitals and nursing homes.
These exclusions represent approximately 3% of the population.

Instrument design

Qualitative testing was carried out by Statistics Canada's Questionnaire Design Resource Centre (QDRC) for selected modules of the survey questionnaire, while questions for the remaining modules came from other Statistics Canada surveys. Questions adhere as closely as possible to content established by the Harmonized Content Committee at Statistics Canada.

The questionnaire follows standard practices and wording used in a computer-assisted interviewing environment, such as the automatic control of flows that depend upon answers to earlier questions and the use of edits to check for logical inconsistencies and capture errors. The computer application for data collection was tested extensively.

Starting in 2023, SFS collection moved from computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) to primarily self-completed electronic questionnaires (EQ).

Sampling

This is a sample survey with a cross-sectional design.

Each province is stratified into rural and urban areas and a different design is used in each. In rural areas, a multi-stage sample was selected using the Labour Force Survey (LFS) area frame. In urban areas, a stratified sample was selected from the Building Universe File (BUF). Information from the T1 Family File (T1FF) is used for stratification which improves the efficiency of the urban part of the sample.

All families residing in the selected dwellings were included in the sample.

Sampling unit:
In urban areas, where a stratified single-stage design is used, the sampling unit is the dwelling.

In rural areas, where the LFS area frame is used in a multi-stage design, geographic areas referred to as LFS clusters are the sampling unit at the first stage and dwellings selected within these clusters are the sampling unit at the second stage.

Stratification method:
The first level of stratification is by province and each province is further stratified into rural and urban areas. Two independent samples are drawn within each province, one from each of these strata.

In rural areas, a multi-stage sample was selected using the Labour Force Survey area frame. The LFS stratification into large geographic strata is used during first stage selection of clusters.

In urban areas, information from the T1 Family File (T1FF), such as age and income, is used to stratify the Building Universe File (BUF), into groups of dwellings predicted to have similar net worth.

Sampling and sub-sampling:
The SFS sample consists of 43,000 dwellings, 27,433 dwellings selected from the urban strata and 15,567 dwellings within 1,304 clusters from the rural strata.

The allocation takes into account the different sample designs in urban and rural areas. In addition, to improve the quality of the estimates, higher net worth strata are oversampled compared to lower net worth strata in the urban areas.

Data sources

Data collection for this reference period: 2025-09-08 to 2025-12-20

Responding to this survey is voluntary.

Data are collected directly from survey respondents, extracted from administrative files and derived from other Statistics Canada surveys and/or other sources.

Collection methods:
Electronic questionnaire, telephone interview and personal interview

Capture method:
EQ (Electronic questionnaire)

Initial contact:
Introductory letter sent to respondents where available
Some respondents will be first contacted by an interviewer in person

Follow up:
Reminder letter/text/email sent to the respondents
Interviewer calls/visits respondents

Proxy reporting:
Yes

Languages offered:
English and French

Average time of interview:
45 minutes

Administrative data source:
Income tax Records file (T1 Family File (T1FF))
Administrative Personal Income Masterfile (APIM)

Other source: Pension Plans in Canada (PPIC)

To reduce response burden, information from personal tax data and the Pension Plans in Canada survey are used.

View the Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s) .