I will be brief.
We did a survey on financial security to get a better look at assets and liabilities. Since 1999, we have been calculating the value of pension rights for people who have an employer-sponsored pension plan. The survey has been carried out periodically, the latest being in 2005. We compared those results with the results from 1999.
Graph 7 shows the life cycle of net worth, which increased by 23.2% between 1999 and 2005. The medium value was $148,400. However, the net worth of people aged 65 and over was much higher than that of the age group between 45 and 64. As one might predict as well, the net worth is much higher for economic families than for unattached individuals. The net worth for unattached men and unattached women is indicated by the blue and pink lines.
The following chart shows the distribution of wealth among people 65 years and over. The age group with the largest net increase in wealth value is the 55-to-64 group, followed by those 65 and over, whose wealth increased by approximately $100,000, from $343,070 to $443,610 between 1999 and 2005, in 2005 dollars.
The group showing the largest increase is women 65 years of age and over living outside an economic family; that means that they are living alone. Their wealth in 2005 was still lower than that of men: $155,000 versus $197,000 for men 65 and over who live alone.
At a previous committee meeting, you talked about access to ownership and seniors living in a residence versus renting. Chart 9 gives you just a few statistics about the rate of ownership among people 65 years and over. In families, the percentage remained unchanged between 1999 and 2005 at 83%. It varies.
Finally, we can see that the gap has widened. If we look at the gap between the top and bottom economic levels, the gap grew between 1999 and 2005.