Canada Education Savings Program: 2023 Annual Statistical Review

On this page

• List of acronyms
• List of tables
• About this report
• Introduction
• Definition of concepts used in this report
• Glossary
• The Canada Education Savings Program at a glance
• The data in this report
• Reporting in constant dollars
• Canada Education Savings Program results for 2023

Alternate formats

List of acronyms

ASR

Annual Statistical Review

CESG

Canada Education Savings Grant

CESP

Canada Education Savings Program

CLB

Canada Learning Bond

EAP

Employment assistance payment

ESDC

Employment and Social Development Canada

PP

Percentage points

PSE

Postsecondary education

RESP

Registered Education Savings Plans

List of tables

• Table 1: Additional CESG eligibility thresholds
• Table 2: CLB eligibility thresholds
• Table 3: National summary of statistics
• Table 3a: National summary of statistics - Registered Education Savings Plan
• Table 3b: National summary of statistics - Canada Education Savings Grant
• Table 3c: National summary of statistics - Canada Learning Bond
• Table 3d: National summary of statistics - Access to postsecondary education
• Table 4: Total RESP assets by year in current dollars
• Table 5: Proportion of RESP assets, CESG payments and CLB payments held by different promoter types in 2023
• Table 6: Cumulative RESP contributions in current dollars
• Table 7: Average RESP contributions in 2023 in current dollars: Nationally and by province and territory
• Table 8: Proportion of beneficiaries by contribution amount they received in their RESP
• Table 9: Cumulative CESG payments since 1998 in 2023 in current dollars: Nationally and by province and territory
• Table 10: Proportion of CESG and CLB payments received by children, broken down by family income level
• Table 11: Total annual number of CESG beneficiaries
• Table 12: Cumulative number of CESG beneficiaries 0 to 17 years old in 2023, by gender
• Table 13: Number of new beneficiaries in receipt of the CESG
• Table 14: CESG take-up rate in 2023: Nationally and by province and territory
• Table 15: CESP take-up rate by gender
• Table 16: Average annual contributions for beneficiaries in receipt of the CESG in 2023 constant dollars
• Table 17:  Annual net CLB payments in current dollars and number of beneficiaries in receipt of the CLB, by year
• Table 18: Cumulative number of CLB beneficiaries and take-up rate
• Table 19: Cumulative number of CLB beneficiaries 0 to 19 years old in 2023, by gender
• Table 20: CLB take-up rate and CLB net payments in 2023 in current dollars: Nationally and by province and territory
• Table 21: New CLB beneficiaries annual take-up rate
• Table 22: Contributions made to the RESPs of CLB beneficiaries in 2023 constant dollars
• Table 23: Number of CLB-eligible individuals and CLB beneficiaries born before 2006, and CLB payments to adult beneficiaries in current dollars, as of December 31, 2023: Nationally and by province
• Table 24: RESP withdrawals in 2023 constant dollars and number of beneficiaries making RESP withdrawals
• Table 25: RESP withdrawals of CLB beneficiaries in 2023 constant dollars
• Table 26: RESP withdrawals for beneficiaries from families with low and middle income in 2023 constant dollars
• Table 27: EAP and PSE withdrawals in 2023 constant dollars
• Table 28: EAP and PSE withdrawals of CLB beneficiaries in 2023 constant dollars
• Table 29: Proportion of beneficiaries with RESP withdrawals, by gender
• Table 30: Average RESP withdrawals in 2023 constant dollars, by gender

About this report

The 2023 Annual Statistical Review (ASR) of the Canada Education Savings Program (CESP) provides statistics on Registered Education Savings Plans (RESP) for the period between January 1 and December 31, 2023. The ASR also provides statistics on the Canada Education Savings Grant (CESG) and the Canada Learning Bond (CLB). The CESG and the CLB are 2 education savings benefits paid into RESPs provided by the Government of Canada. The report also provides historical data.

Introduction

The Government of Canada encourages using RESPs to save for a child’s postsecondary education (PSE), including full- or part-time studies at a trade school, college, university, or in an apprenticeship program. Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) administers the CESG and the CLB to help Canadians build early savings and aspirations toward their child’s PSE after high school.

Glossary

This section describes education savings benefits available through RESPs and the role of financial institutions in providing them.

Registered Education Savings Plans

To receive the education savings benefits, an RESP must be opened with a promoter, such as a bank, financial planner, scholarship plan dealer, or an insurance company.

Anyone can open an RESP. Typically, a parent, grandparent, or another family member opens an RESP and names a child as the plan’s beneficiary. The person who opens the RESP is referred to as the subscriber. The subscriber does not need to be related to the beneficiary.

There are 3 types of RESPs:

• individual non-family plans: only 1 beneficiary is named to the RESP
• individual family plans: multiple beneficiaries may be named to the RESP, but they must all be directly related (including through adoption) to the subscriber
• group plans: savings for many (non-family) beneficiaries of the same age group are pooled together and collectively invested by a scholarship plan dealer

Funds in an RESP can be held in a variety of forms (for example: savings deposits, guaranteed investment certificates, mutual funds, and other types of investments available under the Income Tax Act); they grow tax-free until withdrawn by the subscriber. Depending on the RESP promoter and their offerings, numerous account features are available, including low- or no-fee options.^{Footnote 1}

Canada Education Savings Grant

The CESG consists of a basic grant (Basic CESG) available to families of all income levels and an additional CESG amount (Additional CESG) for beneficiaries from families with low and middle income.

Basic Canada Education Savings Grant

The Basic CESG is a 20% payment into an RESP on the first $2,500 of contributions made into the RESP each year, or up to $5,000 in contributions if sufficient carry-forward room exists. Beneficiaries are eligible until the end of the calendar year they turn 17 years old.

Grant room and carry forward

Grant room, or unused amounts of the Basic CESG, accumulates for each child until December 31 of the year they turn 17-years-old. An amount of $500 is added annually to the grant room for each eligible child.

Unused Basic CESG amounts for the current year are carried forward for possible use in future years, provided the beneficiary remains eligible.

Additional Canada Education Savings Grant amounts

Beneficiaries from families with low or middle income may also qualify for the Additional CESG. This is a payment of 10% or 20% on the first $500 of contributions made in an RESP each year on or after January 1, 2005, up to the end of the calendar year the beneficiary turns 17 years old.

Note: Grant room and carry forward do not apply to the Additional CESG.

Note: The Government of Canada pays a maximum lifetime amount of $7,200 in the Basic and Additional CESG to each beneficiary.

For 2023, the following adjusted family income thresholds determined eligibility for the Additional CESG:

Table 1: Additional CESG eligibility thresholds

Additional CESG	Adjusted family income
20%	Up to $53,359
10%	Greater than $53,359 but no more than $106,717

Canada Learning Bond

The CLB is available to individuals born on or after January 1, 2004, from families whose income is below a certain threshold (Table 2) or for whom benefits are payable under the Children’s Special Allowance Act. The bond provides an initial sum of $500 in an RESP and $100 for each subsequent benefit year of eligibility, up to the benefit year in which the beneficiary turns 15 years old, to a maximum of $2,000. Contributions to an RESP are not required to receive the CLB. The CLB can also be claimed for previous years during which the child was eligible, even if they did not have an open RESP.

Eligibility for the CLB is based, in part, on the number of qualifying children and the adjusted income of the primary caregiver, including that of a cohabiting spouse or common-law partner, as outlined in the Canada Education Savings Act. Accordingly, a child receiving the CLB in a given year might not be eligible in subsequent years. For example, children who received it in 2022 would not qualify in 2023 if their adjusted family income^{Footnote 2} was higher than $53,359 that year.

From July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, the CLB eligibility was based, in part, on the following adjusted family income thresholds:

Table 2: CLB eligibility thresholds^{Footnote 3}

Number of qualified children	Adjusted family income
1 to 3	Up to $53,359
4	Less than $60,205
5	Less than $67,079
6	Less than $73,953

Registered Education Savings Plan promoters

The role of RESP promoters, the organizations offering RESPs and education savings benefits, is essential. They assist with the application process and help the subscriber understand the various investment options. In 2023, there were 85 promoters, falling into 4 categories:

• banking services: deposit-taking institutions that provide private and commercial services
• insurance and other: institutions that offer insurance (property, casualty, life, and health) and other various registered plan promoter types
• investment services: institutions that provide services in investment banking, brokerage services, wealth management, fund operations, and private equity, security and commodity exchanges
• scholarship plan dealers: institutions that offer registered plans by age cohort in addition to family and individual plans

As in previous years, investment services held the largest share of RESP assets (46.9%) and received the bulk of CESG payments (41.1%) in 2023. On the other hand, banking services received the highest proportion of CLB payments (58.1%).

The Canada Education Savings Program at a glance

National summary

Table 3: National summary of statistics^{Footnote 4Footnote 5Footnote 6}

For accessibility reasons, the table has been simplified. Consult the PDF version for the full table.

The data in this report

Data sources: the data in this report come from the CESP reporting database, which compiles information from 85 RESP promoters.

Rounding: the numbers presented in this report may not add up exactly due to rounding decimals.

Aggregation and non-Canadian residents: national totals include data on beneficiaries whose regional identity is either unknown or outside Canada. Because of this, provincial and territorial statistics may not add up precisely to the stated national total.

Historical data: except for contributions and withdrawals, all figures reported here are nominal and do not account for inflation. The 2023 report supersedes previous editions. Due to the nature of financial transactions, earlier years’ data are updated annually to reflect corrections or additional reporting by financial institutions that may have been delayed.

Annual CLB take-up rate: following a recommendation by the Office of the Auditor General, the CESP developed this year an annual CLB take-up rate. This new take up is calculated as follows: Number of children who were eligible for the CLB for the first time in a given year and received a CLB payment in that year, divided by the total number of children who were eligible for the CLB for the first time in that year. This measure complements the CLB cumulative take-up rate that has been published by the CESP since the beginning of the ASR.

• The CLB annual take-up rate informs on how the CESP is doing at reaching new eligible children in a given year
• The CLB cumulative take-up rate informs on how the CESP is doing at reaching all children that were ever eligible for the bond up to a given year

Reporting in constant dollars

Since 2021, the Department reports contributions and withdrawals in constant, or real dollars.^{Footnote 12} Current dollars refer to dollars in the current year, unadjusted for inflation. Constant dollars have been adjusted to reflect their real “purchasing power”.^{Footnote 13} For instance, a dollar in 1998 could buy a hotdog and a drink. In 2023, a dollar could only get a hotdog. As a result, the 1998 dollar had more purchasing power than the 2023 dollar; in other words, it could buy more.

Constant dollars show how the "purchasing power" of contributions and withdrawals changed over time, which current dollars cannot do. Using constant dollars also aligns with analyses done by the Office of the Chief Actuary (responsible for the valuation of the Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security Program, Canada Student Financial Assistance Program and Employment Insurance Program), Finance Canada, the Bank of Canada, and other organizations.

Canada Education Savings Program results for 2023

All dollar values are in current dollars unless specified otherwise.

Registered Education Savings Plan assets and contributions

Canada Education Savings Grant

Canada Learning Bond

Registered Education Savings Plan withdrawals for postsecondary education