Canada's Official Poverty Dashboard of Indicators: Trends, March 2022

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Release date: March 23, 2022
Infographic: Canada's Official Poverty Dashboard of Indicators: Trends, March 2022
Description: Canada's Official Poverty Dashboard of Indicators: Trends, March 2022

Canada's Official Poverty Rate
Table summary
This table displays the results of Canada's Official Poverty Rate. The information is grouped by Year (appearing as row headers), Rate (appearing as column headers).
Year Rate
2015 14.5%
2016 12.9%
2017 11.9%
2018 11.2%
2019 10.3%
2020 6.4%

“Canada’s Poverty Reduction Strategy” establishes the Official Poverty Line for Canada along with the Dashboard of 12 Indicators to track progress on poverty reduction for Canadians and their households.


Dashboard of 12 Indicators
Table summary
This table displays the results of Dashboard of 12 Indicators. The information is grouped by Indicator (appearing as row headers), Most recent value, Previous value, Trend, Percentage change and Reference periods (appearing as column headers).
Indicator Most recent value Previous value Trend Percentage change Reference periods
Dignity
Deep income poverty (Persons with income below 75% of Canada's Official Poverty Line) 3.0% 5.1% Down -41.2% 2019 to 2020
Unmet housing needs and chronic homelessness (Unmet housing needs) 12.7% 12.5% Up 1.6% 2011 to 2016
Unmet health needs (Persons 16 years and older who reported not receiving health care when they felt they needed it) 7.2% 6.1% Up 18.0% 2019 to 2020
Food insecurity (Persons living in households that reported food insecurity) 11.2% 10.8% Up 3.7% 2019 to 2020
Opportunity and Inclusion
Relative low income (Persons who had less than half the median after-tax income) 9.3% 12.1% Down -23.1% 2019 to 2020
Bottom 40 percent income share (Percentage of total after-tax income that went to those in the bottom 40% of the income distribution) 22.2% 21.0% Up 5.7% 2019 to 2020
Youth engagement (Persons aged 15 to 24 who were not in employment, education or training) 11.4% 11.8% Down -3.4% 2020 to 2021
Literacy and numeracy - Low literacy (15 year olds) 13.8% 10.7% Up 29.0% 2015 to 2018
Literacy and numeracy - Low numeracy (15 year olds) 16.3% 14.4% Up 13.2% 2015 to 2018
Resilience and Security
Median hourly wage - All $26.00 $26.36 Down -1.4% 2020 to 2021
Median hourly wage - Women $24.40 $24.81 Down -1.7% 2020 to 2021
Median hourly wage - Men $28.00 $28.62 Down -2.2% 2020 to 2021
Average poverty gap (For those living below the poverty line, the poverty gap ratio is the amount that the person’s disposable family income is below the poverty line, expressed as a percentage of the poverty line) 31.7% 33.0% Down -3.9% 2019 to 2020
Asset resilience (Persons who had enough liquid assets to cover three months of the low income measure) 67.1% 66.6% Up 0.8% 2016 to 2019
Low income entry and exit rates - Entry rates (All persons) 3.9% 3.9% No change 0.0% 2017/2018 to 2018/2019
Low income entry and exit rates - Exit rates (Persons in low income) 29.5% 28.1% Up 5.0% 2017/2018 to 2018/2019

Canada’s Official Poverty Dashboard will be updated as new data become available. The indicators based on the Market Basket Measure (MBM) use the 2018 base.

The methodologies used to estimate the unmet health needs and food insecurity indicators were updated.

Note: The concepts and dimensions of poverty are defined in detail in Opportunity for All – Canada's First Poverty Reduction Strategy, available for download at canada.ca/publicentre-ESDC.

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