Updated

The average Canadian individual is now wealthier than the average American.

According The Globe & Mail, Canadian households are on average $40,000 richer than American households. And the advantage does not have to do with exchange rates because in the last few years the Canadian dollar has caught up to the American dollar.

The Globe & Mail said that according to the latest Environics Analytics WealthScapes data report, the average net worth of a Canadian household was $363,201 in 2011, while that of an average American household was about $320,000.

Unemployment in Canada is also lower than in the U.S. -- the rate is 7.2 percent in Canada, and in America it is hovering at 8.2 percent.

The Globe & Mail's Michael Adams credits this surge in wealth in Canada a great extent to the 2008 economic and housing market crises that hit the U.S., as well as Canadians' higher consumer confidence in the last years.

"But there is one caveat that could give the U.S. an ego boost," a U.S. News & World Report article concludes, "the average American holds more liquid assets -- cash in hand -- than the average Canadian."

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