Poverty rate declines in all age groups in Canada / Le taux de pauvreté diminue pour tous les groupes d’âge au Canada

audreyl

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Disaggregated trends in poverty from the last Census of Population show that poverty in Canada has declined in all age groups, especially among children and youth. Despite these trends, many families have remained vulnerable to situations of poverty. Here are a few highlights from the data collected nationwide in the 2021 Census:
  • The poverty rate in Canada was 8.1% in 2020, down from 14.5% in 2015.
  • In 2020, the poverty rates of children aged 0 to 5 years (9.1%), children aged 6 to 10 years (8.5%) and youth aged 11 to 17 years (7.9%) all decreased by more than half from their levels in 2015.
  • Declines in poverty were driven by higher government transfers in 2020, including the enhanced Canada Child Benefit and temporary pandemic relief benefits.
  • Despite higher income levels, poverty was more prevalent in large urban areas, reflecting higher costs of living. Among large urban centres, the poverty rate was highest in Vancouver (11.2%), Halifax (10.5%) and Toronto (10.0%), and lowest in Québec (4.8%), Saguenay (5.3%) and Oshawa (5.3%).
  • The poverty rate of immigrants declined by more than half from 2015 to 2020, falling from 18.8% to 9.1%. However, poverty was more prevalent among immigrants, particularly among refugees and recent immigrants (those who landed in the five years preceding the census year), than among the Canadian-born population.
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Les tendances désagrégées en matière de pauvreté tirées du dernier Recensement de la population montrent que le taux de pauvreté au Canada a diminué pour tous les groupes d’âge, et en particulier pour les enfants et les jeunes. Malgré ces tendances, de nombreuses familles sont restées vulnérables aux situations de pauvreté. Voici quelques faits saillants provenant des données recueillies à l’échelle nationale dans le cadre du Recensement de 2021 :
  • Le taux de pauvreté au Canada était de 8,1 % en 2020, en baisse par rapport à 14,5 % en 2015.
  • En 2020, les taux de pauvreté des enfants âgés de 0 à 5 ans (9,1 %), des enfants âgés de 6 à 10 ans (8,5 %) et des jeunes âgés de 11 à 17 ans (7,9 %) ont tous diminué de plus de la moitié par rapport aux niveaux enregistrés en 2015.
  • Les baisses du taux de pauvreté étaient principalement attribuables à l’augmentation des transferts gouvernementaux en 2020, y compris l’Allocation canadienne pour enfants bonifiée et les prestations temporaires liées à la pandémie.
  • Même si les niveaux de revenu étaient plus élevés dans les grandes régions urbaines, la pauvreté y était plus répandue, ce qui reflète un coût de la vie plus élevé. Parmi les grands centres urbains, le taux de pauvreté était le plus élevé à Vancouver (11,2 %), à Halifax (10,5 %) et à Toronto (10,0 %), et le plus faible à Québec (4,8 %), à Saguenay (5,3 %) et à Oshawa (5,3 %).
  • Le taux de pauvreté des immigrants a diminué de plus de la moitié de 2015 à 2020, passant de 18,8 % à 9,1 %. Toutefois, la pauvreté était plus répandue chez les immigrants, en particulier chez les réfugiés et les immigrants récents (ceux qui ont été admis au cours des cinq années précédant l’année de recensement), que chez les personnes nées au Canada.
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@resjudicata And maybe adjust that poverty line to reflect reality.

$26,620 for an individual (2022 level) is far lower than where poverty actually begins in this country. People making minimum wage are living in poverty but they make over $30,000.
 
@mrfuture I actually don’t know how they define it. I’d assume it’s anyone that doesn’t have enough cash inflows to provide a minimum standard of living (I.e., average food, shelter, transportation, and surplus for emergencies and savings).

Personally, I’d say anyone that doesn’t make enough to pay the average rent in their region should qualify but the government of Canada seems to think that not being able to afford housing doesn’t make you poor.
 
@mrfuture Lol. I live in Windsor and even here, minimum wage isn’t enough to support oneself with the basic necessities.

But that’s beside the point. I simply think that the government should update those figures to reflect actual poverty in this country because there are a lot more people going without than these statistics imply.
 
@starrss To be fair, I can get behind a definition of poverty that goes beyond "Needs to find a roommate".

But I'm not sure exactly where I'd draw that line.
 
@audreyl I love how few people here read the 90-second summary.

This data is comparing 2020 (When lots of impoverished people were getting Covid benefits worth more than their previous incomes), and over a year before inflation moved about 1%.

And the third sentence of the summary:

Despite the decrease from 2015 to 2020, some groups remained more

vulnerable to situations of poverty in 2020, including unattached

individuals, one-parent families, transgender and non-binary people,

Indigenous people, racialized groups, refugees, and recent immigrants.

Those experiencing poverty are at higher risk of facing hardship during

periods of economic uncertainty, such as during periods of reduced

economic activity or elevated inflation.
 
@guitarrandy It's not really an argument one way or another.

My understanding is that the short term benefits of UBI aren't really debated. Giving poor people more money generally results in better outcomes for them.

Of the main questions is whether that benefit lasts, or if it just creates a new poverty level after a few years. Unfortunately, the data gets very noisy after a few years, and there aren't many good longitudinal studies that can apply to a general population.

Economics Explained had a decent overview.
 

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