The gap between Canada's rich and poor are widening, meaning that wealth is getting much more highly concentrated among less people and more people are carrying more debt than assets, Statistics Canada said in a report Wednesday.

Those Canadians with a net worth that places them in the top 20 percent saw their wealth grow by 19 percent between 1999 and 2005, while those in the bottom 20 percent gained no ground at all, the report said.

The median net worth of the country's top fifth came to 551,000 Canadian dollars last year. It was 465,000 Canadian dollars (1 Canadian dollar=0.87 U.S. dollars) in 1999 and 336,000 Canadian dollars in 1984.

The surging price of housing explains much of the above increase. Most of those (95 percent) in the top 20 percent bracket owned a home, and the median value of that home grew by 75,000 Canadian dollars between 1999 and 2005. Only 6 percent of those in the lowest wealth group owned a home.

Statistics Canada said the median net worth of the poorest group has stagnated over the past two decades. "The value of their assets never exceeded the value of their debts during the 1984 to 2005 period."

"When compared to the degree of inequality for income, it is clear that wealth is much more highly concentrated among a smaller proportion of the population," TD Bank chief economist Don Drummond wrote in an analysis.

Last week, Statistics Canada's Survey of Financial Security showed that Canadian families dramatically increased their net worth between 1999 and 2005, but also took on more debt too.

Source: Xinhua