Wealth distribition in Canada isn't what it should be. That's because a new report just revealed that Canada's wealthiest families are in possession of even more money than previously believed. 

According to The Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, the country's wealthiest one per cent hold 25.6 per cent of riches.

The report states that 25.6 per cent equates to around $3 trillion of the $11.7 trillion owned by all Canadian families. 

This chart indicates family wealth distribution by selected quantiles. Source: PBO calculations.

At the other end of the spectrum, the bottom 40% of the country's families account for a mere 1.2 per cent share of wealth.

For the purposes of the report, PBO measured family wealth in terms of marketable net worth, which is "the amount of money left to a family if it liquidates all its financial and non-financial assets and paid off all its liabilities."

This chart shows family wealth distribition by select quantiles. Source: PBO High-net worth family database.

It was previously thought that Canada's wealthiest one per cent of family's held a 13.7 per cent share of riches, but a new modelling approach revealed that they are in fact in possession of billions more.

The report notes that the distribution of wealth among households is "heavily skewed" toward the wealthiest families.

This chart indicates wealth distribution by selected wealth thresholds in Canada. Source: PBO High-new worth family database.

It adds: "In Canada, a small proportion of families at the top of the distribution possess net worth that is orders of magnitude higher than the country's median net worth."