Defining and Measuring Poverty
Poverty means a lot more than how much money you have, but most poverty statistics are based on income. Poverty statistics in Canada are usually based on the low income lines published by Statistics Canada. These poverty lines (or annual income levels) vary with the size of family and community. For example, for a large city, in 1996, the poverty lines were set at $17,132 for an individual and $32,238 for a family of four. People with incomes below these poverty lines have to spend at least 20% more than the average Canadian family on basic needs of food, shelter and clothing. The poverty rate is another commonly used term that refers to the percentage of people who live under these poverty lines. Many live far below these lines. Welfare rates or full-time minimum wage earnings in all provinces fall far below these lines. The most recent statistics on poverty were released at the end of 1997 for the year 1996.
How Many People are Poor in Canada?
Poverty is much more widespread in Canada than most people realize. An estimated 5,294,000 people - one Canadian in six - were living below the poverty line in 1996. In fact, these numbers underestimate the number of poor Canadians because they do not include Aboriginal people on reserves, residents of the Yukon and Northwest Territories, and people who live in institutions (prisons, hospitals, and homes for the aged).
The current poverty rate is 17.9%. In other words, 17.9% of Canadians are poor.
The poverty rate varies from province to province. Quebec has the highest rate at 21.4% and Prince Edward Island has the lowest at 14.5%. Because so many people live in Ontario and Quebec, more than half of Canada's poor live in these two provinces.
We all face some risk of poverty. Poverty is often brought on unexpectedly because of the loss of employment, death or disability of a family breadwinner, family breakup, or increased costs because of a major illness or mishap in the lives of people. Again, changes in the economy and problems in the labour market can mean not enough jobs, not enough hours of work, declining real value of minimum wages or very low wages so that people cannot earn enough to live on. Furthermore, members of some groups in our society face a greater risk of poverty than others because of discrimination, unequal opportunities, lack of recognition for the work (paid or unpaid) they do, and inadequate income support for people who are unable to work or to find paid work.
Families: Some kinds of families are more likely to be poor. Young families (where the head of the family is under 25 years), and female single-parent families are at greater risk of being poor as shown on the attached table. Low income families with children face increasing depth of poverty. The average income of these families falls more than $9,000 below the low income lines.
Unattached Individuals: A second income within a family helps to keep a family out of poverty. Compared to the rate for families (14.5%), we find the poverty rate for individuals who are on their own is much higher (40.2%). The poverty rate for unattached youth is particularly high at 63.7%.
Women: Women continue to be more at risk of being poor, especially those unattached or heading lone-parent families. For example, 46.6% of all unattached women live in poverty, while 33.9% of unattached men are poor. Again, among single-parent families, 60.8% of those headed by mothers are poor, while 31.3% of those headed by fathers live in poverty.
Children: More than one in five of Canada's children live in poverty. This means that almost one and a half million children are living in poor families.
Seniors: One in five Canadians over 65 years live below the poverty line. The risk of poverty is greatest for women who are on their own.
Native People: The Aboriginal People's Survey showed incomes for Canada's Aboriginal population in 1990 to be much lower than those for the Canadian population as a whole. Almost one-half of Aboriginal persons (47.2%) received less than $10,000, compared to about one-quarter (27.7%) of all Canadians.
People with Disabilities: People with disabilities also have incomes lower than those of the general population. We have statistics from the census for people with disabilities of working age. In 1990, 42.7% of these individuals had an income below $10,000, compared to 34.9% of all Canadians in the same age group.
Income is shared very unequally in Canada. If we take all of the income in Canada and divide it up like a pie (see chart below) we find that the richest fifth of Canadians receives close to one half of all income in Canada (47.3%) and the poorest fifth receive only 3.1% of the income. In other words, the richest fifth receives more than 15 times as much money as the poorest fifth. Unfortunately the gap between the richest and poorest is growing. From 1995 to 1996 there was an average loss of $500 for the one-fifth of families with the lowest incomes, and an average gain of $2,000 for the one-fifth of families with the highest incomes.
Sources: Statistics for native people and people with disabilities from David Ross, Richard Shillington and Clarence Lochhead, The Canadian Fact Book on Poverty, (Ottawa: Canadian Council on Social Development, 1994), p.40-42. All others from Statistics Canada, Income Distributions by Size in Canada 1996 and Low Income Persons 1980-1996. All statistics use 1992 as base year.
(aussi disponible en français) (January 1998)
Copyright © 1997 The National Anti-Poverty Organization (NAPO)