Couples with children less able to absorb economic stresses. (Child & Family).

OTTAWA -- The net worth of young couples with children has decreased in the last 15 years to the degree that they may have difficulty absorbing economic stresses such as job loss, according to Statistics Canada.

Median net worth for all families - the amount left after selling all assets and paying all debts - rose about 10% from 1984 to 1999. For families where the main income recipient was aged 25 and 34, however, it fell by 30% to $30,800.

For families where the major income recipient was 65 or older, median net worth increased 56% to $126,000 - contributing to a growing wealth gap. Those families in the top 5% of wealth distribution saw their net wealth go up by 28% while it fell by about 25% among immigrant families living in Canada for less than 10 years.

Statistics Canada suggests several causes for the wealth gap, including:

* the booming stock market of the 1990s, which likely contributed to the rapid revaluation of financial assets held predominantly by wealthier families;

* easier access to credit, which may have led some less-wealthy families to accumulate more debt;

* larger contributions to Registered Retirement Savings Plans by families in the middle which may have widened the gap;

* differences between less-wealthy and wealthy families in the growth of inheritances and transfers from parents to their adult children;

* reducing earning years among young people who now stay in school longer than their counterparts in the mid-1980s did;

* lower earnings for young men in the late 1990s.

613-951-3608