Shot of a stressed businesswoman sitting on the floor outside the boardroom
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Money continues to be the leading cause of stress for Canadians, based on FP Canada’s latest financial stress index, released on Tuesday.

It was the top source of stress for 42% of respondents to the certification body’s 2025 survey, down slightly from 44% last year but trending upward over the past five years. Money surpassed health (21%), relationships (17%) and work (17%) as the top source of stress.

The top factors affecting personal finances were grocery prices and inflation, cited by 64% and 54% of respondents, respectively. Across generations, younger respondents were more likely than their older peers to cite house prices as affecting personal finances (45% of those ages 18 to 34, versus 26% of those ages 35 to 54, and 15% of those age 55 and older).

To address financial stress, respondents said saving more (48%), paying down debt (40%) and having an emergency fund (37%) would help. But they didn’t take those actions given the high cost of living (68%), fear of making the wrong financial decision (52%) and a lack of discretionary income (51%).

A lack of financial education was also cited — especially by younger respondents — as a barrier to positively addressing finances. Those ages 18 to 24 said not knowing where to access reliable financial advice (49%), how to begin improving their finances (49%) or understanding of financial concepts (37%) as top barriers. For those ages 35 to 54, those figures were 36%, 41% and 23%, respectively.

Last year a BMO poll found that 45% of Canadian respondents used artificial intelligence (AI) to learn about personal finance. Still, the majority of respondents (68%) also said AI can’t understand how emotions influence financial planning — or a lack of financial planning, no doubt.

FP Canada’s latest survey found that respondents who get professional help with their finances tend to be more hopeful about their financial futures than those who don’t get that help — 60% versus 48%, which represented the widest percentage-point gap in the past three annual surveys.

Leger conducted FP Canada’s financial stress index between Jan. 6 and Jan. 13 using Leger’s online panel and receiving responses from 2,010 Canadians. The polling industry’s professional body, the Canadian Research Insights Council, says online surveys can’t be assigned a margin of error because they don’t randomly sample the population.