In the last six years, Canadian families have watched as their wealth has grown exponentially.

According to a recent survey from Statistics Canada, the median net worth of Canada's 13.3 million "family units" – which includes families, couples and unattached singles – was $148,350 in 2005. This is up almost 41.7 percent from 1999 and up 23.3 percent after considering inflation.

The rise in Canadian's wealth could be due to any number of reasons or hypotheses. Nearly half of all Canadians are employed, bringing the family unit salary up. Canadian's total assets, combining everything from stocks and bonds to real estate, amounted to almost $5.6 trillion, more than 1.4 times the estimate in 1999. Favourable economic conditions, a strong real estate market and rebounding stock markets are likely to be the driving force behind this surge.

Despite the rise in wealth, it's not all good news for Canadians. The total debt load carried by Canadian families grew almost 50 percent in the same six years. After considering inflation, the median debt load rose 38 percent to $44,500 per family.

Total debt load on lines of credit doubled between 1999 and 2005, bringing the total for all Canadians to $68 billion. Mortgage debt tends to account for about three-quarters of all debt. It also rose by 47.5 percent to $572 billion.

Looking towards the future, not all Canadians have retirement plans in place. Almost three in every 10 Canadian families have no pension savings, meaning no company plan or RRSPs. Roughly two-thirds of families with incomes below $30,000 had no pension savings at all.