Can you afford to live in Canada?

The settlement funds that IRCC recommends will help you survive, but how much do you need to thrive in Canada?

Settlement funds exist to ensure that recent immigrants can cover basic living expenses while finding work and a place to live.

The cost of living on the other hand is often much higher, with conservative estimates at over $1,500 per month before rent in many Canadian cities (source: numbeo.com).

The following article breaks down the cost of living in Canada, providing a rough guide on how much you can expect to spend on some basic expenses once you arrive.

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A comparison of two cities

To provide a rough idea of what to expect, CIC News has compiled a table of monthly cost-of-living estimates, based on crowdsourced data (source: numbeo) for both Toronto and Winnipeg*.

Toronto

Winnipeg

Rent

Most newcomers to Canada will rent their accommodation. Rent will be the single largest cost in their monthly budget.

Rental prices vary depending on the area and type of property.

On the first month you will also likely have to pay a security deposit, which is typically one month’s rent.

The table below shows the median monthly rent for some major cities in Canada.

Groceries

The table below shows the average monthly minimum amount of money to allocate for food groceries, sorted by some of the major cities, as of August 2024.

The figures are crowdsourced and based on an adult eating 2400 calories a day on an omnivorous diet.

The low estimate eliminates dairy and reduces meat consumption from numbeos’ baseline estimate.

The high estimate increases the amount of meat and dairy added to the monthly shop.

These figures can change significantly based on where you shop and what specific items you include in your monthly groceries.

The table below shows estimates for the monthly cost of groceries based on crowdsourced data.

Travel

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In the metropolitan areas of Canada, most newcomers will rely on public transport to navigate the city.

The table below shows the cost of an adult monthly transit pass for some of the major cities in Canada. All prices are gathered from the cities’ respective transport boards.

Phone and internet

Mobile data can be more expensive in Canada than in the country you are coming from.

The table below shows the average cost of an unlimited nationwide talk and text plan along with 10-19 GB of data, sorted by some of the major provinces.

Source: Price Comparisons of Wireline, Wireless and Internet Services in Canada and with Foreign Jurisdictions: 2023 Edition

From: Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

Methodology

*The data for this comparison was gathered using the numbeo cost of living estimator.

We selected Toronto and Winnipeg as examples of cities where the cost of living is higher and lower respectively.

The categories used to prompt the estimator were as follows.

Single person (1 bedroom apartment using public transport)
Lower estimate
The lower estimate was based on a hypothetical single person (1 bedroom apartment using public transport) with the following spending habits:

• Eating lunch or dinner in restaurants for 5% of their meals, with 100% of these being ‘inexpensive’ e.g. fast food;
• Drinking no coffee outside the home;
• Going out e.g. cinema or nightlife twice per month;
• Consuming a ‘moderate’ amount of alcohol;
• Doesn’t smoke;
• Eats a ‘typical western’ diet of groceries;
• Does not own a car;
• Makes one round trip per month in a taxi;
• Has a monthly travel pass;
• Has no gym or sports club membership;
• Goes on no vacations per year;
• Buys a ‘low’ amount of clothes; and
• Renting a 1-bedroom apartment in the city centre.
• Travelling by car estimate

Travelling by car estimate

For the ‘travelling by car’ row in the table, the driving car parameter was edited from ‘no car’ to ‘low’.

Middle estimate

The middle estimate was based on a hypothetical single person (1 bedroom apartment using public transport) with the following spending habits:

• Eating lunch or dinner in restaurants for 20% of their meals, with 80% of these being ‘inexpensive’ e.g. fast food;
• Drinking coffee outside the home a “moderate amount”;
• Going out e.g. cinema or nightlife once per week;
• Consuming a ‘moderate’ amount of alcohol;
• Doesn’t smoke;
• Eats a ‘typical western’ diet of groceries;
• Does not own a car;
• Makes one round trip per week in a taxi;
• Has a monthly travel pass;
• Has a gym or sports club membership;
• Goes on one ‘inexpensive’ vacation per year;
• Buys a ‘moderate’ amount of clothes; and
• Rents a 1-bedroom apartment in the city centre.

Travelling by car estimate

For the ‘travelling by car’ row in the table, the driving car parameter was edited from ‘no car’ to ‘moderate’.

Higher estimate

The higher estimate was based on a hypothetical single person (1 bedroom apartment using public transport) with the following spending habits:

• Eating lunch or dinner in restaurants for 40% of their meals, with 40% of these being ‘inexpensive’ e.g. fast food;
• Drinking ‘a lot’ of coffee outside the home;
• Going out e.g. cinema or nightlife 3-4 times per week;
• Consuming ‘a lot’ of alcohol;
• Doesn’t smoke;
• Eats a ‘typical’ western diet of groceries;
• Does not own a car;
• Makes one round trip per month in a taxi;
• Has a monthly travel pass;
• Has a gym or sports club membership;
• Goes on three ‘relatively expensive vacations’ per year;
• Buys ‘a lot’ of clothes; and
• Renting a 1-bedroom apartment in the city centre.

Travelling by car estimate

For the ‘travelling by car’ row in the table, the driving car parameter was edited from ‘no car’ to ‘a lot’.

Single person (3 bedroom with roommates using public transport)

Lower estimate

The lower estimate was based on a hypothetical single person (3 bedrooms with roommates using public transport) with the following spending habits:

• Eating lunch or dinner in restaurants for 5% of their meals, with 100% of these being ‘inexpensive’ e.g. fast food;
• Drinking no coffee outside the home;
• Going out e.g. cinema or nightlife twice per month;
• Consuming a ‘moderate’ amount of alcohol;
• Doesn’t smoke;
• Eats a ‘typical’ western diet of groceries;
• Does not own a car;
• Makes one round trip per month in a taxi;
• Has a monthly travel pass for each family member;
• Has no gym or sports club membership;
• Goes on no vacations per year;
• Buys a ‘low’ amount of clothes; and
• Renting a 1-bedroom apartment in the city centre.

Travelling by car estimate

For the ‘travelling by car’ row in the table, the driving car parameter was edited from ‘no car’ to ‘low’.

Middle estimate

The middle estimate was based on a hypothetical single person (3 bedrooms with roommates using public transport) with the following spending habits:

• Eating lunch or dinner in restaurants for 20% of their meals, with 80% of these being ‘inexpensive’ e.g. fast food;
• Drinking coffee outside the home a “moderate amount”;
• Going out e.g. cinema or nightlife once per week;
• Consuming a ‘moderate’ amount of alcohol;
• Doesn’t smoke;
• Eats a ‘typical’ western diet of groceries;
• Does not own a car;
• Makes one round trip per week in a taxi;
• Has a monthly travel pass;
• Has a gym or sports club membership;
• Goes on one ‘inexpensive’ vacation per year;
• Buys a ‘moderate’ amount of clothes; and
• Sharing a 3-bedroom apartment in the city centre.

Travelling by car estimate

For the ‘travelling by car’ row in the table, the driving car parameter was edited from ‘no car’ to ‘moderate’.

Higher estimate

The higher estimate was based on a hypothetical single person (3 bedrooms with roommates using public transport) with the following spending habits:

• Eating lunch or dinner in restaurants for 40% of their meals, with 40% of these being ‘inexpensive’ e.g. fast food;
• Drinking ‘a lot’ of coffee outside the home;
• Going out e.g. cinema or nightlife 3-4 times per week;
• Consuming ‘a lot’ of alcohol;
• Doesn’t smoke;
• Eats a ‘typical’ western diet of groceries;
• Does not own a car;
• Makes one round trip per day in a taxi;
• Has a monthly travel pass;
• Has a gym or sports club membership;
• Goes on three ‘relatively expensive vacations’ per year;
• Buys ‘a lot’ of clothes; and
• Sharing a 3-bedroom apartment in the city centre.

Travelling by car estimate

For the ‘travelling by car’ row in the table, the driving car parameter was edited from ‘no car’ to ‘a lot’.

Family of 4 (3-bedroom using public transport)

Lower estimate

The lower estimate was based on a hypothetical family of 4, 2 adults and 2 children (living in a 3-bedroom apartment using public transport) with the following spending habits:

• Eating lunch or dinner in restaurants for 5% of their meals, with 100% of these being ‘inexpensive’ e.g. fast food;
• Drinking no coffee outside the home;
• Going out e.g. cinema or nightlife twice per month;
• 2x adults consuming a ‘moderate’ amount of alcohol;
• No smokers;
• Eats a ‘typical’ western diet of groceries;
• Does not own a car;
• Makes one round trip per month in a taxi;
• Every family member has a monthly travel pass;
• No gym or sports club memberships;
• Goes on no vacations per year;
• Buys a ‘low’ amount of clothes; and
• Renting a 3-bedroom apartment in the city centre.

Travelling by car estimate

For the ‘travelling by car’ row in the table, the driving car parameter was edited from ‘no car’ to ‘low’.

Middle

The middle estimate was based on a hypothetical family of 4, 2 adults and 2 children (living in a 3-bedroom apartment using public transport) with the following spending habits:

• Eating lunch or dinner in restaurants for 20% of their meals, with 80% of these being ‘inexpensive’ e.g. fast food;
• Drinking coffee outside the home a “moderate amount”;
• Going out e.g. cinema or nightlife once per week;
• 2x adults consuming a ‘moderate’ amount of alcohol;
• Doesn’t smoke;
• Eats a ‘typical’ western diet of groceries;
• Does not own a car;
• Makes one round trip per week in a taxi;
• Each family member has a monthly travel pass;
• Each family member has a gym or sports club membership;
• Goes on one ‘inexpensive’ vacation per year;
• Buys a ‘moderate’ amount of clothes; and
• Renting a 3-bedroom apartment in the city centre.

Travelling by car estimate
For the ‘travelling by car’ row in the table, the ‘driving car’ parameter was edited from ‘no car’ to ‘moderate’.

Higher estimate

The higher estimate was based on a hypothetical family of 4, 2 adults and 2 children (living in a 3-bedroom apartment using public transport) with the following spending habits:

• Eating lunch or dinner in restaurants for 40% of their meals, with 40% of these being ‘inexpensive’ e.g. fast food;
• Drinking ‘a lot’ of coffee outside the home;
• Going out e.g. cinema or nightlife 3-4 times per week;
• 2x adults consuming ‘a lot’ of alcohol;
• Doesn’t smoke;
• Eats a ‘typical’ western diet of groceries;
• Does not own a car;
• Makes one daily round trip per day in a taxi;
• Each family member has a monthly travel pass;
• Each family member has a gym or sports club membership;
• Goes on three ‘relatively expensive vacations’ per year;
• Buys ‘a lot’ of clothes; and
• Renting a 3-bedroom apartment in the city centre.

Travelling by car estimate

For the ‘travelling by car’ row in the table, the driving car parameter was edited from ‘no car’ to ‘a lot’.