Poverty in Canada is on the decline.
That’s the finding from a new study carried out by Statistics Canada in Ottawa. The federal agency, which tracks major economic statistics, found that the number of Canadians living below the poverty line has never been lower.
The numbers come from the "Canadian Income Survey" for 2017, which tallies how Canadians from different demographic groups are doing that year compared to how they were doing in previous years. Overall, the median income, after taxes, for Canadian families rose by 3.3% to $59,800. That figure comes on the heels of two years of flat growth.
Despite this good news, the data also showed that in 2017, 3.4 million Canadians, or 9.5% of the population, lived below the poverty line, down from 10.6% in 2016. The definition of the poverty line is something of a moving target. Last year, Ottawa established a new definition of the poverty line, which from now on will be calculated as the Market Basket Measure or "MBM."
By the MBM's calculations, the government considers someone as being below the poverty line when they are unable to pay for a specific basket of goods and services in their community — things such as healthy food, appropriate shelter and home maintenance, clothing and transportation, and access to other services and activities.
The number of children living below it has fallen precipitously in recent years. In 2017, 622,000 children — 9% of all children — were living below the poverty line. In 2016, the figure was 755,000 children, or 11%. The proportion peaked in 2012 when 15% were officially considered poor — more than one million children. Additionally, in 2017, just 238,000 Canadian seniors were living below the poverty line, just 3.9% of that total demographic group, and a reduction of more than 16% from the 2016 level
