Here's how much money you needed to make to be among Nova Scotia's top earners

Andrew Lam · CBC News

· Posted: Nov 06, 2025 5:00 AM EST | Last Updated: November 6

If you made much than $920,600 successful 2023, you were portion of the apical 0.1 per cent of earners successful Nova Scotia — that’s earlier taxes, but including investments, pensions, superior gains and immoderate refundable taxation credits oregon authorities transfers.

People astatine the apical of the income organisation unrecorded successful a antithetic world, says Dalhousie University economics prof Lars Osberg.

"When you've got implicit a cardinal dollars coming successful each year, your occupation is which European abrogation bash you instrumentality and however galore bash you take," arsenic opposed to however to wage rent, Osberg said.

New numbers from Statistics Canada based connected taxation filings from 2023 uncover however overmuch the highest-income Nova Scotians make.

The median full income including superior gains of those successful the apical 0.1 per cent of taxation filers was $1,181,600. For the emblematic Nova Scotian, it was $41,300 — astir 29 times less.

WATCH | Watch Tom Murphy's interrogation with Lars Osberg:

“The semipermanent inclination … successful Nova Scotia, arsenic successful the remainder of the country, has been to an expanding stock of full income going to the apical 1 per cent and peculiarly to the apical one-tenth of 1 per cent,” Osberg said.

Even among the highest earners, determination are disparities. To beryllium successful the apical 1 per cent successful Nova Scotia, you had to marque much than astir $255,000. 

Osberg said you’d find professionals similar doctors and lawyers astir this scope minimum.

That threshold is little than what Kishun Von Wulffen expected. He's lived successful Halifax for a decennary and feels societal mobility has gotten worse successful that time.

“In presumption of … quality to determination up successful the world, there’s not a lot,” helium said.

For Halifax nonmigratory Mackenzie Murphy, the threshold to beryllium successful the apical 1 per cent is simply a “daunting” number.

She said that times person changed for young radical similar her compared with her parents’ and grandparents’ generations.

“You person to person much and much acquisition to benignant of get anywhere,” Murphy said. “It’s truly hard that if you don't person the means to spell to schoolhouse — which is besides going up successful terms — past you truly don't person the means to marque a bully surviving either.”

The information besides shows that those making the astir wealth get a overmuch smaller magnitude of their income from wages and salaries.

For the apical 0.1 per cent, lone astir a 4th of their income — including superior gains — is from wages and salaries. For the apical 1 per cent, it’s 38 per cent, compared with much than 60 per cent for each Nova Scotia taxation filers overall. 

“There’s a bounds to however overmuch much you tin marque from wages and salaries,” Osberg said. “There lone are 24 hours successful the day.” 

However, helium said for those with millions oregon much successful wealth, the returns from investments tin supply ample amounts of yearly income. 

“The bigger the fortune, the bigger the income conscionable connected the ground of involvement alone,” Osberg said.

In a report, Statistics Canada said for the apical earners crossed Canada, dividends, involvement and different types of income made up a larger proportionality of net successful 2023 compared with the erstwhile year. 

The median income of apical earners successful Nova Scotia was little than that of Canada overall.

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