Summary of findings COVID-19 surveys: Financial impact of the pandemic on Canadians

The following dashboard presents the results of two surveys by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC), on the financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Canadians.

Dashboard on COVID-19 surveys

How to navigate the dashboard

The dashboard contains two different pages that can be accessed by the tabs located at the top of the dashboard: “Financial well-being" and “Bank products and services”. The tab shown in colour indicates the page currently displayed on your screen. You can move your mouse over charts and graphs to get more targeted information (where available). This dashboard has been produced with Microsoft PowerBI, which offers several keyboard shortcuts to help you navigate the dashboard.  

Dashboard on COVID-19 surveys

The COVID-19 Financial Well-Being Survey

This survey launched in August of 2020, and will run monthly until at least March 2023.

It collects information about the following:

• changes in employment, income, investments and debt
• how Canadians are managing their day-to-day finances during the COVID-19 crisis including the use of emergency funds, managing credit and debt, and keeping up with bill payments
• uptake and awareness of supports offered by government and financial institutions
• impacts of the crisis on debt loads and longer-term savings
• Canadians’ risk of being targeted by fraud and financial scams

The information provided in the COVID-19 Financial Well-Being Survey dashboard compares the latest monthly wave of data with findings from the 2019 Canadian Financial Capability Survey which provides insight on Canadians Financial knowledge, abilities and behaviours prior to the pandemic.

The full dataset for this survey is available upon request. Please email fcac.research-recherche.acfc@fcac-acfc.gc.ca for more information.

The Survey on Canadians’ Use of Bank Products/Services (UBPS)

This survey launched in July of 2020 and will run until April 2021.

Areas of focus include:

• impact of branch closures on banking behaviour
• impact of the pandemic on accessing banking services
• impact of branch closures/physical access restrictions on accessing funds
• consumer awareness of COVID-19-related bank financial assistance programs
• level of consumer take-up of COVID-19-related bank financial assistance programs
• consumer experience with COVID-19-related bank financial assistance programs

Related links

• COVID-19: Managing financial health in challenging times
• Canadians and their Money: Key Findings from the 2019 Canadian Financial Capability Survey
• Budget Planner
• Canada's COVID-19 Economic Response Plan