The richest 10 per cent of B.C. families has more than half of the province's wealth, according to a new report from the left-leaning Broadbent Institute.

In contrast, the bottom half of the province has just three per cent of the wealth.

That gives B.C. the highest rate of wealth inequality in the country: In B.C., the richest 10 per cent of families control 56 per cent of the province's wealth, compared to 48 per cent for the country as a whole.

The top tenth's share of all wealth is lowest in the Atlantic province (32 per cent) and in Quebec (43 per cent).

The Broadbent report is based on survey data collected by Statistics Canada in 2012, which asked Canadians about their net worth. Net worth is the amount of money a family would have if they sold off all their assets and paid off all their debts.

The median net worth for all B.C. families is $344,000, the highest in the country and well above the national average of $244,000. This is believed to be due in large part to B.C.'s high property values.

But there is a huge wealth gap between the poorest B.C. families and the richest.

The richest tenth of B.C. families have a median net worth of $2 million. In contrast, among the poorest tenth of B.C. families, the median net worth is negative $10,000, meaning they have more debts than assets.

"Wealth inequality in our country is . . . a significant problem," said Rick Smith, executive director of the Broadbent Institute. "I think most Canadians would likely know there are some people who are richer than others. But the extent of that disparity certainly took us by surprise."

Bryan Yu, an economist with Central 1 Credit Union, said the concentration of wealth in the top two wealthiest percentiles hasn't changed much between 2005 and 2012.

"The numbers show that it is relatively high but it's not inconsistent with what it was over the past 10 years," he said.

"We do recognize there is always going to be some inequality within the population. It is part of society in terms of how it relates to human capital, distribution of wealth and bequests over time."

In B.C., he said the higher wealth inequality could be due to a number of reasons including the increasing value of real estate and demographic differences.

In the Prairies, for example, Yu said there is a greater percentage of younger families who haven't been able to accumulate as much wealth because of where they are in their life cycle. In B.C., there are more older retirees whose homes are paid off and have more financial assets.

"Overall, the B.C. numbers are higher," he said. "We do think that's probably due to factors such real estate and having time to build up financial assets."

Trish Garner, a community organizer for the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition, said the report shows that things "are still looking as terrible as they were" in 2005.