Canadians And Debt

Toronto, ONTARIO - According to a study conducted by Ipsos-Reid on behalf of Scotiabank, seven in ten (71%) Canadians 25-64 years of age who are the main or joint financial decision-maker in the household plan to "pay down debt" over the next twelve months, and three quarters (75%) "consider their debt payments to be part of their day-to-day living expenses."

Six in ten (62%) respondents agree with the statement, "being in debt scares me" and half (50%) say they would have "great difficulty paying down their debt if someone in their household became unemployed."

However, more than half (55%) say they will be using more or the same amount of credit as they are now.

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid poll conducted on behalf of Scotiabank between October 14th and October 19th, 2003. The poll is based on a randomly selected sample of 1,000 adult Canadians between the ages of 25 and 64, who were the main or joint financial decision-maker in the household. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 177 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population.

Seven in ten (71%) Canadians 25-64 years of age who are the main or joint financial decision-maker in the household plan to "pay down debt" over the next twelve months and one in ten (11%) will be "taking on more debt." One in six (17%) will do neither, while the remaining 1% "doesn't know."

Three quarters (75%) of respondents agree (44% "strongly agree," 31% "somewhat agree") with the statement "I consider my debt payments to be part of my day-to-day living expenses." Two in ten (21%) disagree (9% "somewhat disagree," 12% "strongly disagree"), and 4% "neither agree nor disagree."

• Atlantic Canadians (85%) are most likely to consider debt payment part of their day-to-day living expenses, followed by residents of Alberta (84%), Saskatchewan/Manitoba (76%), Quebec (76%), Ontario (72%), and British Columbia (67%).

Six in ten (62%) respondents agree (38% "strongly agree," 24% "somewhat agree") with the statement "being in debt scares me," while one-third (32%) disagree (19% "somewhat disagree," 13% "strongly disagree") and 6% "neither agree nor disagree."

Half (50%) agree (31% "strongly agree," 19% "somewhat agree") that they would have "great difficulty paying down their debt if someone in their household became unemployed."More than four in ten (44%) disagree (17% "somewhat disagree," 27% "strongly disagree") with the statement, and 5% "neither agree nor disagree."

More than half (55%) of respondents say they will be using more (13%) or the same amount (42%) of credit as they are now, while 44% say they will use less (1% "don't know").

Please open the attached PDF files to view the factum and detailed tables.

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For more information on this news release, please contact:
John Wright
Senior Vice-President
Ipsos-Reid Public Affairs
(416) 324-2900