But certain groups are impacted more than others
Canadian household income declined 3.4% in 2022 compared to the previous year, according to newly published data.
Statistics Canada’s Canadian Income Survey reveals that the post-tax median income of families and unattached individuals fell to $70,500 from $73,000 after adjustment for inflation (which was 6.8% in 2022 on an annual basis).
This was mostly due to decreasing government transfers as the Covid pandemic support was scaled back, and eligibility criteria for some benefits were changed including the insurable hours and income thresholds for Employment Income claims. Meanwhile, market income was relatively stable.
But the drop in median income was not felt evenly with some groups more negatively affected than others, including unattached people, female-led one-parent families, Indigenous people, racialized groups, new immigrants, and people with disabilities.
The report also shows an increase in Canada’s poverty rate, from 7.4% in 2021 to 9.9% in 2022. That means that around 3.8 million Canadians lived below the poverty line. However, the rate was below pre-pandemic levels (10.3% in 2019).
Those below the poverty line (aged 15+) included:
- 26% of unattached people (compared to 6.6% of people in families)
- 22.6% of female-led one-parent families (compared to 6.3% of couples with children)
- 13% of racialized groups (compared to 6.2% among non-racialized groups)
- 17.5% of Indigenous population (compared to 9.5% among non-Indigenous population)
- 12.3% of people with a disability
- 10.7% for immigrants (rising to 16.4% for those who arrived in Canada within previous 5 years)
The data shows an increase in the low-income rate of 1.3 percentage points for a second consecutive year, rising from 10.6% in 2021 to 11.9% in 2022.
Approximately 8.7 million people (22.9% of the population) lived in households that reported some form of food insecurity in 2022, up almost 1.8 million from 2021.
Recent data from Statistics Canada found that in the third quarter of 2023 income inequality worsened.
