Canada ranks No. 9. Not bad, not bad.

Well, it’s not a big deal anyway. Only 0.01 point difference. Next year USA will probably resume its No. 1 spot.

GENEVA (Reuters) – Switzerland knocked the United States off the position as the world’s most competitive economy as the crash of the U.S. banking system left it more exposed to some long-standing weaknesses, a report said on Tuesday.

The World Economic Forum’s global competitiveness report 2009/2010 showed economies with a large focus on financial services such as the U.S., Britain or Iceland were the losers of the crisis.

The U.S. as the world’s largest economy lost last year’s strong lead, slipping to number two for the first time since the introduction of the index in its current form in 2004.

*** *** ***

The WEF bases its assessment on a range of factors, key for any country to prosper. The index includes economic data such as growth but also health data or the number of internet users.

The study also factors in a survey among business leaders, assessing for example the government’s efficiency or the flexibility of the labor market.

The WEF applauded Switzerland for its capacity to innovate, sophisticated business culture, effective public services, excellent infrastructure and well-functioning goods markets.

The Swiss economy dipped into recession last year, too and had to bail out its largest bank UBS. But its economy is holding up better than many peers and most banks are relatively unscathed by the crisis, which drove U.S. banks into bankruptcy.

*** *** ***

Leading emerging markets Brazil, India and China improved their competitiveness despite the crisis, the report showed.

But Russia saw one of the steepest declines among the 133 countries assessed, falling back 12 places to 63, as worries about government efficiency and judicial independence rose, the WEF said.

After years of rapid improvement, which took it to place 29, China now had to tackle shortcomings in areas such as financial markets, technological readiness and education as it could no longer rely on cheap labor alone to generate growth.

India, ranked 49th, was in turn well positioned in complex fields such as innovation but had still to catch up on basics such as health or infrastructure, the WEF said.

Brazil leapt by 8 ranks to 56th, as measures to improve fiscal sustainability and to liberalize and open the economy showed effects, the report said.

Among the top-ten, Singapore moved up to third from fifth, swapping positions with Denmark, which fell behind fellow-Nordic country Sweden. Finland as 6th and Germany as 7th stayed put while Japan and Canada overtook the Netherlands.

The WEF study named African countries Zimbabwe and Burundi as the world’s least competitive economies.

In the case of Zimbabwe, the WEF noted the complete absence of property rights, corruption, basic government inefficiency as well as macroeconomic instability as fundamental flaws.

For the full report click on: www.weforum.org/gcr
Read full article: yahoo.com

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So, I decided to find this information on my own, and certainly I found it. So should I share it here???

The data include average annual household expenses for all provinces & territories in Canada: Yukon (YT), British Columbia (BC), Alberta (AB), Saskatchewan (SK), Manitoba (MB), Northwest Territories (NWT), Nunavut (NU), Ontario (ON), Québec (QC), Nova Scotia (NS), Prince Edward Island (PEI), New Brunswick (NB), Newfoundland and Labrador (NL).

The average annual food expesne for family in Canada ranges $6000 to $7000 (monthly $500 to $600). The statistics does not indicate how many people in each household, but my guess would be for a family of 4. So, you can calculate the expense for families of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, so on. My monthly grocery bill for me alone (I’m single still) is around $200; however, I include personal care and some health care as part of my grocery expesnes. So I guess I’m doing alright.

National Average Annual Household Expenses Year 2007

	MB	SK	AB	BC	YT	NWT	Canada
Total expenditures	63,303	63,944	85,912	72,621	76,997	89,075	69,946
Total current consumption	44,701	46,089	59,288	53,394	53,929	63,369	49,766
Food	6,518	6,073	7,491	7,745	7,078	9,096	7,305
Shelter	10,852	10,711	14,955	15,056	14,058	18,249	13,643
Household operation	3,063	3,161	3,768	3,357	3,831	4,110	3,287
Household furnishings & equipment	1,715	1,873	2,608	2,036	2,707	2,466	1,964
Clothing	2,482	2,434	3,548	2,818	2,915	3,844	2,948
Transportation	9,651	10,412	12,678	9,896	10,775	11,439	9,395
Health care	1,786	1,738	2,259	2,177	1,603	1,306	1,932
Personal care	1,102	1,082	1,288	1,135	1,193	1,351	1,167
Recreation	3,607	4,387	5,387	4,577	4,860	6,132	3,976
Reading materials & printed matter	267	218	291	233	415	312	260
Education	869	804	1,176	1,215	739	503	1,017
Tobacco & alcoholic beverages	1,441	1,615	2,124	1,624	2,236	2,792	1,536
Games of chance (net amount)	311	286	340	223	308	653	251
Miscellaneous	1,037	1,293	1,374	1,303	1,212	1,116	1,081
Personal income taxes	12,411	12,215	19,766	13,297	16,437	17,751	14,447
Personal insurance payments and pension contributions	4,003	3,923	4,331	3,850	4,961	6,228	3,946
Gifts of money and contributions	2,188	1,716	2,527	2,080	1,670	1,727	1,788

Reference: Statistics Canada

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Today I found a Canadian government site that includes average MD yearly salaries for all provinces in Canada: British Columbia (BC), Alberta (AB), Saskatchewan (SK), Manitoba (MB), Ontario (ON), Québec (QC), Nova Scotia (NS), Prince Edward Island (PEI), New Brunswick (NB), Newfoundland and Labrador (NL).

Like I said in previous article, ophthalmology is pretty darn good for the highest income nation-wide; however, it’s tough to get in.

Another note: doctors in Alberta seem to earn more than the rest of Canada.

Oh yea, one medical specialty to avoid….PSYCHIATRY?!?! The salaries aren’t as rewarding as other specialties. Could it be most Canadian are mentally healthier, less depressed than Americans?

Canadian National Average Income for Medical Doctors Year 2005-2006 salary (x $1,000)
Specialty	MB	SK	AB	BC	Canada
Family Medicine	213	233	267	228	212
Medical Specialties	231	297	308	262	243
Internal Medicine	275	352	356	322	298
Neurology	234	222	277	286	231
Psychiatry	165	196	223	195	160
Pediatrics	185	255	252	218	196
Dermatology	330	414	470	368	321
Physical Medicine	171	184	254	242	173
Anesthesis	262	286	411	249	273
Surgical Specialties	370	405	464	422	362
General Surgery	339	389	424	372	336
Thoracic / Cardiovascular	446	553	640	463	479
Urology	423	428	452	439	369
Orthopedic Surgery	341	344	420	355	325
Plastic Surgery	315	339	413	281	282
Neurosurgery	n/a	295	312	372	300
Ophthalmology	521	515	611	590	456
Otolaryngology	377	371	505	417	366
Obstetrics / Gynecology	328	381	408	394	346
Total Specialties	273	342	363	314	281
Total Physicians	243	276	305	265	245

Refernce: Canadian Institute for Health Information

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I was about to give up my search, till I found the following information from BC government website. Mission accomplished. Although the statistics is for BC, it can be used as a guide for the rest of Canada.

Ophthalmology, GI, Cardio, and Radiology are medical specialists among the highest earning groups with annual incomes as high as more than $600,000. That’s pretty impressive. What an eye opener! After working for 2 years, they are already millionaires!!! Education definitely pays off in this field. Maybe I should consider a career change?!?!

However, as far as I know, ophthalmology is one of the toughest medical specialties to get into. The number of medical students trained in this field is usually in single digit per year.

So, would you consider a career in medicine? Recession-proof for sure!

Salaries for Medical Practitioners in British Columbia Year 2007-2008

* Yellow = median annual salary
* Reference: BC Health

Specialty	<10k	10k to 49k	50k to 99k	100k to 199k	200k to 299k	300k to 399k	400k to 599k	>600k
General Physician	359	551	619	1,446	1,224	452	145	10
Dermatologist	4	4	7	10	11	13	13	2
Neurologist	3	13	13	21	24	11	13	1
Psychiatrist	25	68	123	261	120	32	8	0
Obstetrician & Gynaecologist	16	20	15	38	49	42	32	9
Ophthalmologist	6	7	8	18	13	18	36	73
General Surgeon	7	15	11	27	41	49	52	10
Neurosurgeon	1	2	1	6	2	10	9	5
Orthopaedic Surgeon	8	20	16	31	49	47	31	2
Plastic Surgeon	5	9	7	15	23	11	4	2
Cardiac Surgeon	1	1	0	2	5	5	8	2
Urologist	2	7	5	8	7	21	23	8
Paediatrician	29	36	28	50	51	20	13	1
Internal Medicine	15	40	24	34	44	37	26	6
Radiologist	5	13	2	23	24	22	52	140
Laboratory Medicine	15	11	4	9	4	2	9	72

Specialty	<10k	10k to 49k	50k to 99k	100k to 199k	200k to 299k	300k to 399k	400k to 599k	>600k
Anesthesiologist	19	39	37	96	166	82	22	0
Paediatric Cardiologist	0	1	0	1	1	1	2	0
Physical Medicine	9	12	8	13	9	5	1	0
Geriatric Medicine	2	6	8	11	1	1	0	0
Cardiologist	0	3	5	7	4	12	30	40
Emergency Medicine	18	8	3	9	4	8	0	0
Medical Microbiologist	0	2	0	1	0	0	1	8
Nuclear Medicine	1	1	0	0	0	1	2	18
Rheumatologist	1	3	4	17	16	9	3	0
Clinical Immunologist	1	1	0	5	4	6	7	2
Medical Genetics	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Vascular Surgeon	0	4	1	2	3	12	10	0
Thoracic Surgeon	3	0	2	2	1	1	4	1
Respirologist	1	5	5	13	15	19	10	6
Endocrinologist	1	2	8	9	18	7	1	0
Gastroenterologist	2	2	3	6	8	13	27	10
Nephrologist	2	3	8	10	8	8	20	4
Infectious Diseases	3	7	3	10	5	2	1	2
Hematology Oncologist	2	8	7	9	3	4	3	1
Total	569	928	991	2231	1973	1000	638	442

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Top Six provinces/territories with highest median household incomes are NWT, Nunavut, Yukon, Ontario, Alberta, and BC. Unless you live in territories, your best bet to earn a high income is in ON, AB, and BC. Albertan seems to enjoy a fairly huge jump in their annual salary. I wonder why such is the case. Oil sand phenomenon?

Canadian Median Household Income – Overall

Year	2011	2006	2001	1996
Canada		53,634	52,438	49,142
Northwest Territories		80,085	71,475	72,448
Alberta		63,988	58,911	52,166
Ontario		60,455	60,164	55,172
Nunavut		60,221	50,971	48,896
Yukon Territory		60,105	58,215	60,993
British Columbia		52,709	52,490	51,530
Manitoba		47,875	46,741	44,025
Saskatchewan		46,705	45,129	43,213
Nova Scotia		46,605	44,764	42,785
Prince Edward Island		46,553	45,413	43,702
Quebec		46,419	45,371	42,714
New Brunswick		45,194	44,818	42,832
Newfoundland and Labrador		44,136	42,190	41,593

Reference: Census Canada

Canadian Median Household Income – Middle Class Family

Reference: StatCan




Household total income – The total income of a household is the sum of the total incomes of all members of that household.

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