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Why there is no official national average
Search for Canada's average credit score and you will find a confident number. It will be from a fintech or a comparison site, not from Equifax or TransUnion, because neither bureau publishes a national average. The figures in circulation are estimates built from each company's own customers, which is why they disagree with each other by ten or twenty points and why none of them can be checked.
We are not going to add another one. What we can show instead is something the estimates cannot: where people actually stand when they apply for credit, province by province, from our own application data.
Credit bands by province, from application data
Across Smarter Loans personal loan applications from August 2025 to July 2026, applicants reported their credit band at application. Here is how those bands were distributed in each province with enough applications to report:
| great | good | fair | low | no credit or unsure | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ontario | 1.8% | 13.3% | 50.6% | 27.3% | 6.2% |
| Alberta | 1.3% | 11.1% | 49.7% | 30.5% | 7.0% |
| British Columbia | n/a | 12.9% | 50.1% | 28.3% | 6.4% |
| Quebec | n/a | 10.8% | 37.7% | 35.7% | 10.8% |
| Manitoba | n/a | 10.0% | 39.3% | 34.8% | 13.8% |
| Saskatchewan | n/a | 8.0% | 35.6% | 42.0% | 12.5% |
| New Brunswick | n/a | n/a | 40.3% | 40.7% | 10.7% |
| Nova Scotia | n/a | n/a | 44.9% | 36.8% | 9.2% |
Source: Smarter Loans personal loan applications, August 2025 to July 2026.
Applications by province: Ontario 17,850; Alberta 8,463; British Columbia 5,211; Quebec 2,602; Manitoba 1,764; Saskatchewan 1,379; New Brunswick 1,266; Nova Scotia 1,215. n/a marks fewer than 100 applications in that band.
Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island and the territories had too few applications in most bands to publish a full breakdown. The credit building loans market serves the two largest groups in every row of that table.
What the pattern shows
- Fair credit is the largest group almost everywhere. Around half of applicants in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, and between a third and a half in the rest.
- Low credit is the second largest, and in Saskatchewan the largest. It is the only province where more applicants reported low credit than fair.
- Good and great are small everywhere. Under one in seven applicants combined in every province that clears the threshold. People with strong credit borrow from their bank; they rarely arrive at a comparison platform.
- The provinces cluster more than they differ. The gap between Ontario's fair share and Quebec's is thirteen points. The gap between fair and low within Quebec is two. Province tells you less about a borrower than band does.
- No credit or unsure is a real group, six to fourteen percent depending on province, and highest in the provinces with the youngest and most mobile populations.
Why applicants are not the whole population
This is application data, and applicants are not a random sample of Canadians. People with excellent credit mostly borrow from their own bank and never apply through a platform, so they are under-represented here. People with fair or low credit are over-represented for the same reason. Read the table as a picture of who is actively seeking credit, not as a census. That is a narrower claim than a national average, and unlike a national average it can be checked.
What band you are in, and what it means
The bands above are self-reported, and most people know roughly where they sit. If you do not, the ranges the bureaus publish are: poor below 560, fair from 560 to 659, good from 660 to 724, very good from 725 to 759, and excellent from 760. Our guide to whether 700 is a good credit score walks through what each band gets you approved for, and how to rebuild credit in Canada covers moving up a band.
Whatever band you are in, one application shows which lenders consider it.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average credit score in Canada?
There is no official figure. Neither Equifax nor TransUnion publishes a national average, and the numbers online are third-party estimates that disagree with each other. Among people applying for credit, the largest group in most provinces reports fair credit, roughly 560 to 659.
Which province has the best credit scores?
Among loan applicants, Ontario and British Columbia have the largest share reporting good or great credit, though the difference from other provinces is a few percentage points, not a different picture. Province is a weak predictor of any individual's credit.
Is a 660 credit score good in Canada?
It is the bottom of the good band. Mainstream lenders generally approve at 660 and up at standard rates; a few points below it and the file starts to read as fair, which changes the pricing more than the approval.
Sources
- Smarter Loans personal loan applications, August 2025 to July 2026, for the provincial band distribution. Band is self-reported at application. Bands with fewer than one hundred applications in a province are marked n/a, and provinces with too few reportable bands are left out of the table rather than shown as a near-empty row.
- Equifax Canada, what is a good credit score, for the band ranges, verified 2 September 2026.
Related reading: is 700 a good credit score and what is a good credit score according to Equifax.
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The Smarter Loans Editorial Team produces in-depth, original content to help Canadians navigate borrowing, credit, and personal finance with confidence.
