List of Canadians by net worth

Statistics Canada uses the Survey Financial Security Public Use Microdata File (SFS PUMF) as their principal "family wealth microdata product".[9]^:1,3

In September 2019, the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO)—an independent, non-partisan office that supports the work of parliamentarians by providing authoritative financial and economic analysis of issues related to public monies—published a two-page cost estimate of the "fiscal revenues of an annual tax on the net wealth of high-net-worth families above $20 million".[9]^:3 The report was one of 200, requested by the political parties in the months leading up to the 2019 federal election.[9]^:3 At that time, the main "family wealth microdata product" used by Statistics Canada—the Survey Financial Security Public Use Microdata File (SFS PUMF)—was found to result in "underreporting" and "missing data."[9]^:1,3 In their 2017 list that ranked Canada's top 100 richest people, Toronto-based Rob McEwen of McEwen Mining, ranked 100th with a net worth of C$875 million, while number 1 on the list—the Toronto-based Thomson family of Thomson Reuters—had a net worth of C$39.13 billion.[10] However, the SFS PUMF only reported on the wealth of families with $27 million or less.[9]^:3

In their June 2020 report, the PBO introduced their new "analytic resource" developed to "address the data gap." Their new modelling approach provides a more reliable estimate of family wealth at the top tail of wealth distribution in Canada. Using publicly available data from Canadian Business (CB) magazine and Statistics Canada's micro dataset, the OPBO created a new synthetic micro dataset called the High-net-worth Family Database (HFD) that recalibrates the SFS PUMF by adding a "synthetic dataset of families with wealth over $3 million".[9]^:1 Using the more finely grained micro data base, PBO found that the share of the wealth held by top 1% wealthiest Canadian families is 12% higher than the share previously reported using the SFS PUMF. The PBO says that the discrepancy may be due to higher incidences of high net worth families not responding to the SFS.[9]^:1 For example, comparing the two surveys based on 2016 data, the SFS PUMF had estimated the wealth held by the top 1% wealthiest Canadians as 13.7%, while the newer calibrated database HFD produced an estimate of 25.6%.[9]^:1

Bloomberg L.P. maintains a daily ranking of the net worth analysis in US$ of the world’s richest people in the world on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which is updated "at the close of every trading day in New York". The results are published on the profile page of each individual billionaire.[11] On September 30, 2020, Joseph Tsai ranked 111th in the world with a net worth analysis of US$15 billion. His most recent change in net worth showed an increase of US$671 million and by YTD an increase of US$2.91 billion.[11] Three members of the Thomson family were listed as individuals, not as a family economic unit.[11]

Every year, the Canadian Business magazine publishes a complete annual ranking of the "100 wealthiest individuals and families in Canada", an "annual guide to the richest people in Canada—how much they're worth, how they made their fortunes, and the companies that got them there."[10] The most recent available list is updated to 2018.[12] Examples of previous years include 2017,[10] 2016,[13] 2015,[14] 2014, and 2013.[15]

The Thomson Family increased their wealth by 30% from over C$26 billion in 2013[15] to over C$30 billion in 2014,[15] reaching over C$39.13 billion by 2017.[10]

Forbes magazine's annual listing of billionaires entitled The World's Billionaires is based on March 18, 2020 "stock prices and exchange rates" in US$.[16] Their 2019 list included 45 Canadians.[3] They collaborate with FactSet Research Systems, Orbis, PitchBook Data, Real Capital Analytics, Reonomy, S&P Capital IQ, and VesselsValue to collect data.[16]