OTTAWA – As the incumbent telcos are already painfully aware, Canadians are spending dramatically less on their old telephone service these days, according to a report out today from Statistics Canada.
Off-setting that are big jumps the amount we’re shelling out for wireless and Internet services, adds the report, from 2004 data, which adds households also spent more on mortgages, energy, and health care, and less on automobiles.
On average Canadian households spent $63,640 in 2004, an increase of 3.4% from the previous year, and well above the inflation rate of 1.9% as measured by the Consumer Price Index.
Households spent an average of $340 on cell phone and other wireless services in 2004, up 18% from 2003. Almost six in ten households (59%) reported having at least one cell phone, up from 54% in 2003.
About 30% of households with the lowest incomes had a cell phone in 2004 – triple the proportion of only 10% just five years earlier. Among households with the highest incomes, the vast majority or 85%, had at least one cell phone, up from 60% five years earlier.
Spending on Internet access jumped by 24% to an average of $210, as the proportion of households reporting high speed access increased to 43%, from 35% in 2003. About six out of ten households reported having some kind of Internet access from home, says Statscan.
Nearly seven out of ten households reported owning a computer. Over 94% of the highest income households had a computer in 2004, compared to 39% of the lowest income group. A record 25% of households reported buying
new computer hardware, a figure which has risen steadily every year since the survey began. Average spending on computer hardware was up 11% in 2004 to $260. However, this was still below the peak of $290 reached in 2000. This was mainly due to the continuing decrease in computer prices, which fell 17% in 2004, according to the Consumer Price Index.
The top three annual household expenditures on recreational services were: rental of cable and satellite services ($460); package travel tours ($430); and use of sports and recreational facilities ($310).
About 66% of households reported subscribing to cable television, down slightly from 67% in 2002 and 68% in 2001. Satellite television receivers were reported by 22% of households, about the same as the previous year.
While all this is happening and growing, spending for conventional land line telephone service fell 6% to $700. Conventional telephone service accounted for just over half of all household spending on communications, down from 80% in 1997 (see Statscan’s chart).
Over 330,000 households reported they used cell phones only and had no conventional land-line phone.
On the entertainment side, “The explosive growth in DVD players continued in 2004, with almost seven out of ten households (68%) reporting them,” says Statscan. “This was a sharp increase from 52% in 2003 and only 20% in 2001 when they were first included in the survey.
That meant, however, the rental of videos and DVDs dropped 11% to an average of $90 per household, while purchases of blank recordable media such as CDs, DVDs and tapes, were up 75% to $20 per household. Four out of ten households had a CD burner, and 16% reported DVD writers.
In addition to cell phones and DVDs, Canadians continued to spend more on digital cameras. Total spending on all cameras was up 60% over 2003 to an average of $120 per household, over two-thirds of which was for digital cameras. Spending on film and processing was down 38% from the previous year to about $70 per household, continues the report.
Personal taxes accounted for an estimated 20% of the average household budget, about the same as in 2003. Shelter claimed 19%, while transportation represented 14% and food 11%, all about the same as 2003.
Households in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia reported spending above the national average. Those in Ontario reported the highest spending among the ten provinces, $71,580 per household. Newfoundland and Labrador continued to have the lowest provincial average ($49,870).
For more, go to www.statcan.ca
