Canada’s Official Poverty Dashboard of Indicators: Trends, April 2026
Release date: April 29, 2026
Description: Canada’s Official Poverty Dashboard of Indicators: Trends, April 2026
| Year | Rate |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 7.0% |
| 2021 | 8.1% |
| 2022 | 10.6% |
| 2023 | 11.1% |
| 2024 | 11.0% |
Canada’s Poverty Reduction Strategy establishes the Official Poverty Line for Canada along with a dashboard of 12 indicators to track progress on poverty reduction for Canadians and their households.
| Indicator | Most recent value | Previous value | Trend | Percentage change | Reference period |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Notes: The indicators based on the Market Basket Measure (MBM) use the 2023 base. The category “women+” includes women as well as some non-binary persons, while the category “men+” includes men as well as some non-binary persons. The concepts and dimensions of poverty are defined in detail in Opportunity for All – Canada's First Poverty Reduction Strategy. |
|||||
| Dignity | |||||
| Deep income poverty (Persons whose disposable family income is below 75% of Canada's Official Poverty Line) |
5.7% | 5.7% | No Change | 0.0% | 2023 to 2024 |
| Unmet housing needs and chronic homelessness - Unmet housing needs |
10.1% | 12.7% | Down | -20.5% | 2016 to 2021 |
| Unmet housing needs and chronic homelessness - Chronic homelessness |
30.2% | 27.6% | Up | +9.4% | 2023 to 2024 |
| Unmet health needs (Persons 15 years and older who reported not receiving health care when they felt they needed it) |
8.8% | 9.1% | Down | -3.3% | 2023 to 2024 |
| Food insecurity (Persons living in households that reported some form of food insecurity) |
24.0% | 25.7% | Down | -6.6% | 2023 to 2024 |
| Opportunity and Inclusion | |||||
| Relative low income (Persons living in households whose median after-tax income is below half the Canadian median after-tax income) |
12.5% | 12.1% | Up | +3.3% | 2023 to 2024 |
| Bottom 40 percent income share (Percentage of total after-tax income of the population in the bottom 40% of the income distribution) | 20.8% | 21.0% | Down | -1.0% | 2023 to 2024 |
| Youth engagement (Persons aged 15 to 24 who were not in employment, education or training) |
10.3% | 9.8% | Up | +5.1% | 2024 to 2025 |
| Literacy and numeracy - Low literacy (15-year-olds) |
18.1% | 13.8% | Up | +31.2% | 2018 to 2022 |
| Literacy and numeracy - Low numeracy (15-year-olds) |
21.6% | 16.3% | Up | +32.5% | 2018 to 2022 |
| Resilience and Security | |||||
| Median hourly wage - All | $30.77 | $30.62 | Up | +0.5% | 2024 to 2025 |
| Median hourly wage - Women+ | $28.85 | $28.57 | Up | +1.0% | 2024 to 2025 |
| Median hourly wage - Men+ | $33.00 | $32.66 | Up | +1.0% | 2024 to 2025 |
| Average poverty gap (Average shortfall below Canada’s Official Poverty Line for those living in poverty, expressed as a percentage of the poverty line) |
34.1% | 33.1% | Up | +3.0% | 2023 to 2024 |
| Asset resilience (Persons who can cover unexpected expenses or reduced income by drawing on assets [e.g., from a bank account] for a period of three months) |
71.4% | 67.1% | Up | +6.4% | 2019 to 2023 |
| Low income entry and exit rates - Entry rates (All persons) |
4.1% | 5.0% | Down | -18.0% | 2021/2022 to 2022/2023 |
| Low income entry and exit rates - Exit rates (Persons in low income) |
34.9% | 32.5% | Up | +7.4% | 2021/2022 to 2022/2023 |
- Date modified: