Metro Vancouver is well-known for being a great place to live. The sights are beautiful, the good is great, and there’s always something happening around the corner. Although, if you’ve been here long enough, you know that living in the Lower Mainland isn’t always sunshine and rainbows.
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A recent report has just revealed how much income a Canadian needs to comfortably live in certain cities. Expectedly, a number of Metro Vancouver locations were named some of the most uncomfortable. But, perhaps not the ones you’re thinking of.
COMFORTABLE INCOME IN METRO VANCOUVER
Moneysense, a website that reports on everything financial, recently polled over 9,000 Canadians to answer a simple question: how much household income do you need to comfortably live in Canada?
$100,000 was the most popular answer, with the runner-up being $150,000. These answers are fairly close to Statistics Canada’s report that the average Canadian household had $100,702 in disposable income in 2024.
To calculate exactly the comfortability of income in Canada, Moneysense considered a number of factors such as rent, transportation, utilities, food, leisure, clothing, income taxes, and more. They then “took a comfortable living in each community to be approximately double the calculated average cost of living.”
MOST UNCOMFORTABLE INCOME IN CANADA
Before you take a guess: no, it’s not Vancouver. Shocking, right?
Of the five cities requiring the highest income to feel financially comfortable, two B.C. cities make the list. And, of course, those communities are both located in Metro Vancouver.
The number one is Richmond Hill, Ontario, followed by two other Ontario locations. But in fourth place, it’s Coquitlam, B.C. at a comfortable income of $104,928. Following it is North Vancouver, B.C. at $103,512.
According to Moneysense, the average monthly cost of living of a Coquitlam resident is $4,372 per month. On the other hand, North Vancouver is $4,313 per month.
So, turns out you have to make big bucks to live in either North Vancouver or Coquitlam. While one is far more surprising than the other, that doesn’t change the fact that Metro Vancouver is a pretty expensive place to live regardless.
