Put a year of phone, internet and device statements next to a year of power, heating and water bills, and the first pile may well be the bigger one. Statistics Canada’s household spending survey shows that is now true for the average Canadian household, and that the lead has grown in nine of the ten steps the survey lets us measure. The comparison below is Raw POV’s own, because the agency publishes the two figures in separate cells and never sets them against each other.
In 2023, the average Canadian household spent $3,425 on communications and $2,907 on water, fuel and electricity for the home it lives in. In 2010 the order was reversed: $1,742 on communications, $2,240 on the utilities. Divide one by the other and the ratio goes from 0.778 to 1.178. The communications account is now 17.8% larger than the utilities account, both measured in the dollars of their own year.
Both figures come from Statistics Canada table 11-10-0222-01, the Survey of Household Spending, which we downloaded as a full file and read directly. The agency’s release of 18 September 2026 carries no figures of its own. It announces that the 2023 data were reweighted, and that changes which numbers you will find.
The ratio between the two bills, year by year
The survey was not run in 2018 or 2020, so the series has eleven readings. Here they are, with the ratio Raw POV calculated for each.
| Year | Communications | Water, fuel and electricity | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | $1,742 | $2,240 | 0.778 |
| 2011 | $1,824 | $2,324 | 0.785 |
| 2012 | $1,851 | $2,307 | 0.802 |
| 2013 | $1,997 | $2,380 | 0.839 |
| 2014 | $2,096 | $2,551 | 0.822 |
| 2015 | $2,187 | $2,478 | 0.883 |
| 2016 | $2,246 | $2,460 | 0.913 |
| 2017 | $2,404 | $2,486 | 0.967 |
| 2019 | $2,670 | $2,535 | 1.053 |
| 2021 | $3,001 | $2,737 | 1.096 |
| 2023 | $3,425 | $2,907 | 1.178 |
The ratio rises in nine of the ten intervals. The exception is 2013 to 2014, when it slips from 0.839 to 0.822 because the utilities line jumped by $171 in a single step. Any claim that the line rose “every year” would be wrong, and the table shows why.
The crossing, the point where communications overtakes the utilities, sits between 2017 (0.967) and 2019 (1.053). With no 2018 in the series, nobody can name the year it happened, and we do not.
Why the ratio matters more than the growth rate
These are current dollars, with no adjustment for inflation. Saying that communications spending rose 96.6% between 2010 and 2023 would sound like a price story, but almost everything in a household budget costs more than it did in 2010. The honest comparison is against the rest of the budget.
- Communications: up 96.6% ($1,742 to $3,425).
- Water, fuel and electricity: up 29.8% ($2,240 to $2,907).
- Total current consumption: up 41.0% ($54,013 to $76,146).
Communications grew 3.24 times as fast as the utilities line, and about 2.4 times as fast as the household budget overall. Its share of current consumption went from 3.23% to 4.50%. Because the two ends of the ratio sit in the same dollars of the same year, inflation cancels out of it, which is why the ratio is the headline here and the growth rate is not.
What changed inside the communications account
The category is not one bill. In 2023 it broke down into six lines: cell phone services at $1,494, internet access at $1,040, purchase of phones and equipment at $324, digital services at $263, landline telephone at $186, and postal, courier and delivery services at $117. They add to $3,424 against a published total of $3,425, a gap that is rounding.
Between 2010 and 2023 the mix turned over:
- Landline telephone fell from $512 to $186, a drop of 63.7%.
- Cell phone services rose from $731 to $1,494, up 104.4%.
- Internet access rose from $388 to $1,040, up 168.0%.
- Digital services went from $7 to $263, 37.6 times the starting figure.
Cell phone and internet together reached $2,534 in 2023. That pair alone is larger than the $1,658 the average household spent on education, though smaller than health care ($3,060) or clothing ($2,716). The full account of $3,425 is larger than all three. In 2010 it was the smaller one against health care, which then ran 28.4% above communications.
What the data cannot show
The table records how much households spent, not why. Higher prices, more services bought, more people in the home with their own connection, or all three would produce the same numbers. It also prices no provider or plan. And an average household is nobody’s actual household: homes differ in size, province and the way they pay for heat, so $3,425 can sit above the real bill for some homes and below it for others. The same is true of $2,907.
There is a method wrinkle too. Statistics Canada notes that the 2019 questionnaire was streamlined and that some 2019 estimates may not be directly comparable with earlier years. The crossing falls in exactly that interval. The direction does not depend on it, since the ratio rises six times in the seven intervals from 2010 to 2017, but how much of the 2017 to 2019 jump of 0.086 is method rather than behaviour, we cannot tell. Last, the 2023 figures here are the reweighted ones, calibrated to 2021 Census projections where the May 2025 release used the 2016 Census, so older coverage may show different numbers for 2023.
A related reading on the same theme, where the thing you own is controlled by someone else: what Canada’s repair law did and did not oblige a manufacturer to sell. On how far one price can spread around its middle, see our price check at the Itaúnas forró festival, where seven guesthouses quoting the same six nights asked between R$2,400 and R$6,000. And since a phone has to travel with you, our travel kit checked against Canada’s 23 kg bag limit includes the airport rule for power banks. For another case where a headline figure hid a third answer, read the share of Canadian businesses that were undecided about AI.
Frequently asked questions
Do Canadians spend more on phone and internet than on electricity and heating?
On average, yes, since 2019. Statistics Canada’s Survey of Household Spending puts the 2023 average at $3,425 for communications and $2,907 for water, fuel and electricity at the household’s principal accommodation. Averages hide individual households, so some homes spend more on utilities.
When did communications spending pass utilities in Canada?
Between 2017 and 2019. The 2017 ratio was 0.967 and the 2019 ratio was 1.053. The survey has no 2018 reading, so no single year can be named.
Is the 96.6% rise in communications spending adjusted for inflation?
No. The figures are current dollars. The comparison that holds up is the ratio between two lines in the same year, or the 41.0% rise in total current consumption over the same period.
What is included in Statistics Canada’s communications category?
Six lines: cell phone services, internet access, purchase of telephones and equipment, digital services, landline telephone services, and postal, courier and delivery services.
Sources and method
From the source. Every dollar figure in this article comes from Statistics Canada table 11-10-0222-01, “Household spending, Canada, regions and provinces”, category “Average expenditure per household”, geography Canada, years 2010 to 2023 (no 2018, no 2020). We downloaded the full CSV file and read the 44,265 rows. The reweighting note comes from The Daily, “Survey of Household Spending, 2023”, 18 September 2026, and the questionnaire change from the table’s own footnotes. The utilities line is the table’s category “Water, fuel and electricity for principal accommodation”; the communications line is its category “Communications”.
Our own analysis. Statistics Canada publishes none of the following. Raw POV calculated each: the ratio of communications to utilities for all eleven years; the 17.8% size of the 2023 gap; the nine of ten intervals in which the ratio rises and the one exception; the percentage growth of each line and of total current consumption, and the 3.24 and 2.4 multiples; the shift in share of current consumption from 3.23% to 4.50%; the percentage change inside each communications line; and the 28.4% gap with health care in 2010.
Bases, stated plainly. Figures are average expenditure per household in current dollars. They are not per person, not per bill, and not adjusted for inflation. They are survey estimates, not account records. This article does not recommend any plan, provider or change in spending, and it names no company.
