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To find the top Canadian full-time earners overall, look to the North.

All three territories had median annual incomes above $60,000. Nunavut was first with $77,130, followed by the Northwest Territories at $73,667 and the Yukon at $60,124.

The 2011 survey, based on data collected in 2010 by Statistics Canada, showed the biggest wage earners by province were in resource-heavy Alberta, where the median salary of full-time employees was $55,507.

Ontario was next with $50,116, while British Columbians earned $49,143, those in Saskatchewan brought in $46,304 and Newfoundland and Labrador workers earned $45,823.

Not surprisingly, the economies of both Saskatchewan and Newfoundland — as in Alberta — have been boosted by the resources sector.

Meanwhile, full-time incomes in other provinces were below $44,000.

Calgary was the city with the highest full-time incomes, at $57,967. In the Ottawa-Gatineau region, incomes averaged $57,551, followed by Edmonton at $56,388 and Regina at $52, 294. Toronto and Vancouver averaged $50,787 and $50,016, respectively.

The Statistics Canada data also showed biggest income earners tended to be highly educated, with 67.1% of the top one percent of full-time workers having received a university degree. By occupation, many of those in the top one-percent had jobs in management, health, business, finance and administration and law.

Importantly, the voluntary nature of the NHS leaves it subject to data gaps in certain geographic areas and populations. The survey was sent to roughly 30% of Canadian households and drew a response rate of 68.6%, versus the 2006 census sent to about 20% of households with a response rate of 93.5%.