Country guide · Canada
Moving to Canada: cost of living, salaries, taxes, visas
World's largest per-capita skilled-migrant intake via Express Entry; high progressive tax; cold winters and expensive Toronto / Vancouver housing.
Canada is the largest per-capita receiver of skilled immigrants in the G7. Express Entry ranks candidates federally; Provincial Nominee Programs let provinces pull candidates with locally-needed skills. The combined intake makes Canada one of the most accessible major destinations for points-eligible applicants.
Federal + provincial income tax reaches into the high 40s at the top marginal rate, with mid-bracket effective rates in the high 20s to mid 30s. Toronto and Vancouver have housing markets that have pressured salaries for years; smaller cities (Montreal, Calgary, Ottawa) offer meaningfully better cost-of-living math.
At a glance
Canada relocation profile
Mundevo coverage in Canada
Cost-of-living detail pages for each Canada city in the catalog.
Tax and visa landscape
Headline tax model + entry-point visa overview for relocators.
- Effective income tax: 22.0%
- Social security (employee): 6.0%
- Total payroll deduction: 28.0%
- VAT: 13.0%
- Currency: CAD
Effective rates assume a single salaried filer at country median wage. Special regimes (e.g. expat-favoring schemes) are not applied here — see the visa guide for those.
Visa categories, residency routes, and tax-regime context for relocators are detailed in the dedicated visa guide.
Canada visa guide →Salary bands at Toronto — by role
Illustrative gross-salary bands for 6 senior IC roles in Toronto. Derived from NYC anchor × Canada pay-tier multiplier. Cross-check Levels.fyi, Glassdoor before negotiating.
| Role | P25 | P50 | P75 | NYC anchor (P50) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software engineer | CA$138,153 | CA$171,500 | CA$219,139 | $180,000 |
| Product manager | CA$142,917 | CA$185,792 | CA$247,722 | $195,000 |
| UX / product designer | CA$97,319 | CA$128,285 | CA$172,521 | $145,000 |
| Marketing manager | CA$84,049 | CA$115,014 | CA$154,826 | $130,000 |
| Data scientist | CA$128,625 | CA$166,736 | CA$219,139 | $175,000 |
| Finance analyst | CA$104,806 | CA$147,681 | CA$209,611 | $155,000 |
Top relocation corridors
Closest peers by cost-of-living index — the moves most commonly considered alongside Canada.