Canada's Official Poverty Dashboard of Indicators: Trends, April 2024

Release date: April 26, 2024
Infographic: Canada's Official Poverty Dashboard of Indicators: Trends, April 2024
Description: Canada's Official Poverty Dashboard of Indicators: Trends, April 2024


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
2021 7.4
2022 9.9

Canada’s Poverty Reduction Strategy introduced the Official Poverty Line for Canada and a 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
Deep income poverty
(Persons whose family disposable income is below 75% of Canada’s Official Poverty Line)
5.0% 3.6% Up +38.9% 2021 to 2022
Unmet housing needs and
chronic homelessness
- Unmet housing needs 10.1% 12.7% Down -20.5% 2016 to 2021
Unmet health needs
(Persons 15 years and older who reported not receiving health care when they felt they needed it)
9.2% 7.9% Up +16.5% 2021 to 2022
Food insecurity
(Persons living in households that reported moderate or severe food insecurity)
16.9% 12.9% Up +31.0% 2021 to 2022
Relative low income
(Persons living in households whose median after-tax income is below half the Canadian median after-tax income)
11.9% 10.6% Up +12.3% 2021 to 2022
Bottom 40 percent income share
(Share of total after-tax income held by the population in the bottom 40% of the income distribution)
21.1% 21.8% Down -3.2% 2021 to 2022
Youth engagement
(Persons aged 15 to 24 who were not
in employment, education or training)
9.0% 9.6% Down -6.3% 2022 to 2023
Literacy and numeracy
- Low literacy (15-year-olds) 18.1% 13.8% Up +31.2% 2018 to 2022
- Low numeracy (15-year-olds) 21.6% 16.3% Up +32.5% 2018 to 2022
Median hourly wage
- All $28.75 $28.05 Up +2.5% 2022 to 2023
- Women $26.44 $25.98 Up +1.8% 2022 to 2023
- Men $30.77 $31.04 Down -0.9% 2022 to 2023
Average poverty gap
(Average shortfall below Canada’s Official Poverty Line for those living in poverty, expressed as a percentage of the poverty line)
32.4% 31.6% Up +2.5% 2021 to 2022
Asset resilience
(People who are able to cover unexpected expenses or reduced income, by drawing from assets [e.g., a bank account] for a period of three months)
67.1% 66.6% Up +0.8% 2016 to 2019
Low income entry and exit rates
- Entry rate (All persons) 5.5% 3.4% Up +61.8% 2019/2020 to 2020/2021
- Exit rate (Persons in low income) 29.1% 39.7% Down -26.7% 2019/2020 to 2020/2021

Notes:

Date modified: