Canadian Income Survey, 2024
Released: 2026-04-29
$75,500
2024
The median after-tax income of Canadian families and unattached individuals was $75,500 in 2024, relatively unchanged from 2023, after adjusting for inflation. Similarly, the 2024 poverty rate for Canada remained relatively stable, at 11.0%, compared with the previous year (11.1%).
At the Canada level, median market income ($69,800) and government transfers ($10,300), the two main sources of income for families and unattached individuals, also held steady in 2024 compared with the previous year.
Updates to the Canadian Income Survey
With the release of the 2024 Canadian Income Survey (CIS) data, previously published estimates for reference years 2018 to 2023 have been revised to incorporate the latest information from the 2021 Census of Population. These revisions impact population size estimates and demographic compositions, affecting a broad range of indicators produced by the survey.
In addition, geographic variables were updated for estimates from 2021 to 2023 to reflect the 2021 Census geography boundaries.
Changes to the CIS have also been made to include a person's gender instead of their sex. These revisions start in 2021, the first year that gender information was available. Although sex and gender refer to two different concepts, the introduction of gender does not have a significant impact on overall data analysis and historical comparability, given the small size of the transgender and non-binary populations.
Territorial estimates are now available in the CIS data tables, starting in 2018 and where available. The national estimates were also revised to include the territories.
For Canada-level estimates, the impact of these revisions is relatively small and does not represent a break in the series. More information will be available later this spring, in a paper titled Canadian Income Survey: Population rebasing, 2018 to 2023.
After-tax income increases among families and unattached seniors
The median after-tax income among Canadian families was $108,900 in 2024, up 1.8% from the previous year, while it was $41,000 for unattached individuals, virtually unchanged from 2023.
There was an increase of 2.3% among both non-senior ($118,400) and senior ($83,200) families—senior families are those in which the highest income earner is aged 65 years or older. Among non-senior families, the median after-tax income increased by 3.6% for couples with children and by 1.9% for couples without children or other relatives.
While the after-tax increase for senior families was spread across both market income (+3.4%) and government transfers (+1.9%), the gain among non-senior families was driven by market income (+2.3%). The rise in senior families' market income and government transfers in 2024 marked the second consecutive year of growth.
Among unattached individuals, seniors also continued to see year-over-year increases in their median after-tax income, to $38,600 in 2024 (+3.5% in 2024; +3.9% in 2023). The median for unattached non-seniors was unchanged at $42,700.
Income across Canada
In 2024, families and unattached individuals in the territories continued to have the highest median after-tax income in Canada, led by those in the Northwest Territories ($116,100), followed by those in Nunavut ($109,600) and Yukon ($89,300). Provincially, those in Alberta ($85,300) and Ontario ($79,500) continued to have the highest median after-tax income, while those in the Atlantic provinces had the lowest.
These income differences between provinces and territories are not adjusted to consider regional factors, such as the cost of living or the age structure of the population.
The median after-tax income for families and unattached individuals grew in the Northwest Territories (+10.7%) and Newfoundland and Labrador (+3.8%) in 2024 compared with the previous year but was relatively stable in the other provinces and territories.
Poverty declines for seniors
In 2024, 11.0% of Canadians, or approximately 4.5 million people, lived below the poverty line.
The poverty rate for seniors aged 65 years and older was 5.4% in 2024, down 0.5 percentage points from 2023, a second consecutive annual decrease. The poverty rates for individuals aged 18 to 64 (12.6%) and children younger than 18 (11.5%) were little changed in 2024.
While the median after-tax income for senior families increased, their poverty rate did not change, remaining at 4.0% in 2024. By contrast, unattached seniors saw a decline in their poverty rate from 12.5% in 2023 to 11.1% in 2024, against the backdrop of increases in their median after-tax income.
Poverty across Canada
The poverty rates in the territories tend to be among the highest in Canada, reflecting the higher cost of living in the North. For example, in 2024, Nunavut continued to have the highest poverty rate in Canada, at 31.7%. However, Yukon (11.8%) and the Northwest Territories (10.0%) had poverty rates in 2024 that were comparable to those found in the provinces.
Among the provinces, British Columbia had the highest poverty rate in 2024, at 13.0%, followed by Ontario, at 12.5%. Both were relatively unchanged from 2023.
In contrast, Quebec (7.0%) continued to have the lowest poverty rate in 2024, down 0.7 percentage points from the previous year.
Racialized groups, Indigenous peoples and people with disabilities continue to experience higher poverty rates
Examining the poverty rates of populations that have historically experienced systemic barriers, discrimination or underrepresentation is also important. Statistics are provided below for racialized groups, Indigenous peoples, and people with disabilities.
Among members of racialized groups, the poverty rate was 15.5% in 2024, which was relatively unchanged from 2023, while the poverty rate for non-racialized people was 8.9% in 2024.
The 2024 poverty rates for the three largest racialized groups in Canada were 14.2% for South Asian Canadians, 16.4% for Black Canadians and 19.0% for Chinese Canadians.
In 2024, 18.1% of Indigenous people aged 15 years and older lived below the poverty line. This population continued to be more likely to be living in poverty compared with the non-Indigenous population (10.6%).
People with disabilities were more likely to be living in poverty compared with people without disabilities. In 2024, 12.6% of people with disabilities aged 15 years and older lived below the poverty line, a proportion similar to that in 2023. Meanwhile, the poverty rate for people without disabilities aged 15 years and older was 8.4% in 2024.
Relative low-income rate remains stable
Statistics Canada also reports low income based on the low-income measure, after tax (LIM-AT). The LIM-AT remained relatively unchanged in 2024, at 12.5%. For people aged 18 to 64 years, the low-income rate increased by 0.5 percentage points to 11.7%, while the rates for other age groups were relatively stable.
Among family types, the low-income rate for unattached non-seniors (24.2%) increased by 1.2 percentage points, while the rates for all other family types were relatively unchanged for 2024.
Food insecurity declines following three consecutive years of increases
In 2024, approximately 9.8 million people, or 24.0% of Canadians, lived in households that reported some form of food insecurity, down just over 360,000 people from the previous year. The proportion of those who were marginally food insecure (5.6%) decreased 0.7 percentage points from 2023, while the proportions of those who were moderately (11.9%) and severely (6.5%) food insecure were both relatively unchanged.
Food insecurity varies greatly across family types. In 2024, nearly half of people in one-parent families (44.4%), particularly those in which the parent is a woman+ (47.4%), lived in food-insecure households. Unattached non-seniors (30.4%) were also at a higher risk of food insecurity.
Conversely, people in senior families (9.9%), and specifically senior couples (7.1%), were at a lower risk of experiencing food insecurity. Unattached seniors (13.0%) experienced higher levels of food insecurity than people in senior families, but this level was lower than those for most other family types.
Among racialized groups, the food insecurity rate was 30.4% in 2024, compared with 21.0% for those not in a racialized group. Similarly, for Indigenous peoples aged 15 years and older, the food insecurity rate was 34.7% in 2024, while it was 22.4% for non-Indigenous people.
Food insecurity rates in 2024 decreased or were not significantly changed from 2023 in every province and territory.
Note to readers
The Canadian Income Survey (CIS) estimates are based on probability samples and are therefore subject to sampling variability, especially for smaller groups and geographies. As a result, year-over-year estimates will show more variability than trends observed over longer periods. For example, because the sample sizes in the three territories are relatively small, territorial estimates tend to have a high sampling variability, which can lead to larger year-over-year changes than those that would be observed if the samples were larger. For this reason, caution should be used when comparing year-over-year territorial estimates.
In this release, differences between estimates are statistically significant at the 95% confidence level unless otherwise noted.
Definitions
A family refers to an economic family, which is a group of two or more people who live in the same dwelling and are related to each other by blood, marriage, common-law union, adoption or a foster relationship. This concept differs from the census family concept used in the Annual Income Estimates for Census Families and Individuals.
A senior family refers to a family in which the highest income earner is aged 65 years or older.
A non-senior family refers to a family in which the highest income earner is younger than 65 years.
An unattached individual refers to a person not in an economic family. It is a person living either alone or with others to whom they are unrelated, such as roommates or a lodger.
Gender refers to an individual's personal and social identity as a man, woman or non-binary person (a person who is not exclusively a man or a woman). Given that the non-binary population is relatively small, data aggregation to a two-category gender variable is necessary to protect the confidentiality of responses provided. Individuals in the category "non-binary people" are distributed into the other two gender categories and are denoted by the "+" symbol. The category "men+" includes men, as well as some non-binary people, while the category "women+" includes women, as well as some non-binary people.
Indigenous people refers to people who self-identified as First Nations (North American Indian), Métis or Inuk (Inuit). People living on reserves and other Indigenous settlements in the provinces are excluded from the CIS. In the territories, Indigenous identity is available only for those aged 15 years and older.
Racialized group is derived directly from the concept of visible minority. Visible minority refers to whether a person is a visible minority or not, as defined by the Employment Equity Act. This act defines visible minorities as "persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour." The visible minority population consists mainly of the following groups: South Asian, Chinese, Black, Filipino, Arab, Latin American, Southeast Asian, West Asian, Korean and Japanese. Measurement of population groups designated as visible minorities started in 2020. Please note that the territories are not included in racialized group estimates for Canada.
A person with disabilities refers to a person aged 15 years or older (16 years or older before 2022) who met the Disability Screening Questions criteria. Please note that disability status is not available for the territories.
This release analyzes income on the basis of medians. The median is the level of income at which half the population had higher income and half had lower income. Income estimates are expressed in 2024 constant dollars to factor in inflation and enable comparisons across time in real terms.
After-tax income is the total of market income and government transfers, less income tax.
Market income consists of employment income and private pensions, as well as income from investments and other market sources.
Government transfers include benefits such as Old Age Security, the Guaranteed Income Supplement, the Canada Pension Plan and the Quebec Pension Plan, employment insurance, social assistance, the goods and services tax credit, provincial tax credits, and child benefits.
For 2020, 2021 and part of 2022, government transfers included emergency response and recovery benefits in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The low-income measure defines an individual as having low income if their household's adjusted after-tax income falls below 50% of the median adjusted after-tax income.
Canada's Official Poverty Line is derived using the Market Basket Measure. This measure is based on the cost of a specific basket of goods and services representing a modest, basic standard of living. It includes the costs of food, clothing and footwear, transportation, shelter, communication services, and other expenses for a reference family. These costs are compared with the disposable income of families, after adjusting for family size and region of residence, to determine whether they fall below the poverty line. The poverty estimates are derived using the 2023-base methodology, which became official in November 2025 (The Daily—Dimensions of Poverty Hub update, 2023-base Market Basket Measure).
Food insecurity in this release refers to people living in households that experienced marginal, moderate or severe food insecurity.
Food insecurity data were collected during the CIS interview, which was conducted between January and June 2025, and are being released with the reference year 2024 income estimates. Food insecurity is the inadequate or insecure access to food because of financial constraints and refers to the 12-month period prior to the interview. These data are presented here as 2024 estimates, but some users may prefer to use the timing of the interview, January to June 2025.
Products
"Canada's Official Poverty Dashboard of Indicators: Trends, April 2026" is now available.
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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