Poverty in Canada: Some Facts and Figures
Version française disponible bientot
Defining and Measuring
Poverty
Poverty means a lot more than how much money you have, but most
available 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 income levels) vary with the size of your family and
community. For example, for a large city, in 1997, the poverty
lines were set at $ 17,409 for an individual and $ 32,759 for a
family of four. People with incomes below these poverty lines
have to spend at least 20 percent more of their income than most
families pay for food, clothing, and shelter. 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. The most recent statistics on poverty
were released in April 1999 for the year 1997.
How Many People are Poor
in Canada?
Poverty is much more widespread in Canada than most people
realize. An estimated 5 222 000 people - one Canadian in six -
were living below the poverty line in 1997. In fact, these
numbers underestimate the number of poor Canadians because they
do not include Aboriginal people on reserves, residents of the
Yukon, Nunavut and Northwest Territories, and people who live in
institutions (prisons, hospitals, and homes for the aged).
The current poverty rate is 17.5 %. In other words, 17.5 % of
Canadians are poor.
The poverty rate varies widely from province to province. Quebec
has the highest rate (20.4 %) and Prince Edward Island has the
lowest (13.4 %). Because so many Canadians live in Ontario and
Quebec, 63 % of Canada's poor live in these two provinces.
Who is at Risk of Poverty?
We all face some risk of poverty. Poverty is often brought on
unexpectedly because of loss of employment, the death or
disability of a family breadwinner, family breakup, or increased
costs because of a major illness or mishap in the lives of
people. 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 between $ 8942 and $ 10 057 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 (14.0 %), we find the poverty rate for individuals who are on their own is much higher (39.6 %). The poverty rate for unattached youth (24 years and under) is particularly high at 60.7 %.
Women: Women continue to be more at risk of being poor, especially those unattached or heading lone-parent families. For example, 40.9 % of non-elderly unattached women live in poverty, while 35.1 % of non-elderly unattached men are poor. Again, among single-parent families, 56.0 % of those headed by mothers are poor, while 23.5 % of those headed by fathers live in poverty.
Children: Almost one in five of Canada's children live in poverty. This means that 1 397 000 children are living in poor families.
Seniors: 18.7 % of Canadians over 65 years live below the poverty line. In other words, 662 000 seniors are living in poverty. The risk of poverty is greatest for senior women (49.1 %) 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 Inequality
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 44.3 % of all
income in Canada and the poorest fifth receive only 4.6 % of the
income. In other words, the richest fifth receives almost ten
times as much money as the poorest fifth.
| Richest fifth 44.3 % |
---------- | ---------- | Poorest fifth 4.6 % |
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 1997 and Low Income Persons 1980-1997. All
statistics use 1992 as the base year.
Produced April 1999
Copyright © 1997 The National Anti-Poverty Organization (NAPO)