There were some very interesting statistics generated from a recent online poll conducted by the Royal Bank of Canada, which made comparisons between the debt carried by Canadian households in 2012 versus 2011. The number of survey respondents who had no personal debt, outside their mortgage, increased from 22% to 26% during the last year; a very positive move towards debt-free living.
In spite of this positive direction, there were still some indicators of concern.
For those respondents which did have personal debt, the average amount of that debt did increase by $84 over last year’s number, instead of going down. Just over half, 51% of the respondents, indicated that they were more concerned with paying down debt than investing in the future. In addition, one in three of the survey’s participants noted that they experienced anxiety over their debt levels, an increase in those statistics over 2011.
Canadians appear to be moving in towards more debt-free living, according to this survey, but there is still work to do, to increase the financial stability of Canadian households in general.
Read More about RBC Debt Poll – http://www.rbc.com/newsroom/2012/1010-debt-poll.html