Statistics Canada calculates a measure called “total income.” For a household, total income captures the sum of all members’ income, excluding certain sources, for a certain period of time. Importantly, this is a gross measure and reflects a household’s income before taxation.

Only sources that provide income at regular intervals make up total income, including wages, government transfers, and stock dividends. Total income does not include irregular income like capital gains and lottery or gambling wins.

See the definition for more details.

Total income provides advantages. It is simple, and answers the question “how much money comes into this household per year?” It also reflects the colloquial way that people talk about income, as in “I make 44k a year.”

As opposed to other Statistics Canada measurements, like “market income” or “employment income,” it gives a fuller picture of what a household’s means actually are. Some households may make very little employment income, but make a large amount of money from government transfers or stock dividends.

On the other hand, a household’s total income may still be drastically different than the actual amount of money that ends up in their pocket in a given year. Since total income does not measure taxation and capital gains, total income may overcount a household’s income from the perspective of their actual purchasing power, or indeed undercount it for wealthy households.

Total income also makes it difficult to disaggregate different types of investment income. Some financial instruments, like dividends, GICs, and loan interest constitute total income, but not others like capital gains. The line then is blurred between households that make no investment income, regular investment income, or sporadic capital gains income.

For some analyses that may not matter, but in terms of understanding the Canadian economy it is important to be able to differentiate these kinds of household income.

I was unable to find documentation that would confirm whether or not a landlord’s rental income would constitute part of the total income measure for their household.