Low income and inequality
Key indicators
Selected geographical area: Canada
-
$68,4000.9%
(annual change) -
$73,000
More low income and inequality indicators
Selected geographical area: Canada
-
9.8%
-
-0.040
-
11.1%
-
-3.3
-
$70,336
-
14.2%
-
17.0%
-
32.0%
-
Proportion of households contributing to TFSA, RRP or RRSP in 2015 - Canada
(2016 Census of Population)65.2%
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All (31)
All (31) (0 to 10 of 31 results)
- Articles and reports: 82-003-X202200200002Description:
Food insecurity linked to insufficient income is an important determinant of health. Whether the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated levels of food insecurity in Canada during the pandemic, particularly among vulnerable groups, is unclear. This study estimated the proportion of Canadians reporting experience of household food insecurity six-to-nine months into the COVID-19 pandemic, and drew comparisons to pre-pandemic levels.
Release date: 2022-02-16 - 2. The Gender Wage Gap in 2018 ArchivedStats in brief: 11-627-M2019065Description:
Based on data from the Labour Force Survey, this infographic highlights the gender wage gap and its sources in 2018.
Release date: 2019-10-07 - Articles and reports: 75F0002M2018001Description:
This study looks at changes introduced in 2018 to the methodology used for the census family low income measure, based on the T1 Family File (T1FF; tax filer data). By making these changes, the methodology becomes better aligned with other data sources at Statistics Canada, such as the Census of Population and the Canadian Income Survey. To account for changes in the methodology, new T1FF standard tables on the census family low income measure (after-tax income), going back to 2004 data, are introduced.
Release date: 2018-04-05 - 4. Low Income Measure: Comparison of Two Data Sources, T1 Family File and 2016 Census of Population ArchivedArticles and reports: 75F0002M2018002Description:
This study looks at the differences in after-tax low income measure (LIM) statistics from two data sources which both use administrative tax data as their principal inputs: the 2016 Census of Population and the T1 Family file (T1FF). It presents a summary of the two data sources and compares after-tax LIM statistics by focussing on unit of analysis, LIM thresholds and the percentage of population below the LIM. The study also explores what factors users may want to consider when choosing one data source over the other.
Release date: 2018-04-05 - Articles and reports: 11F0019M2017397Description:
Rates of low income among immigrants continue to be high relative to the Canadian-born population. This paper examines the rate of chronic low income among immigrants aged 25 or older in Canada during the 2000s. Chronic low income is defined as having a family income under a low income cut-off for five consecutive years or more. A regionally adjusted low-income measure is used for the analysis.
Release date: 2017-09-29 - Articles and reports: 11F0019M2014364Description:
During the 1980s and 1990s, immigration was associated with the rise in low-income rates and family-income inequality in Canada. Over the 2000s, there were significant changes in the labour market and in immigrant selection. This paper focuses on the direct effect of immigration on the change in low income and family-income inequality over the 1995-to-2010 period. The paper outlines recent trends in low-income rates and income inequality for both the Canadian-born and immigrants. The low-income rate in Canada fell during the 2000s. Was this driven in part by changes in economic outcomes among immigrants? Inequality increased considerably in the late 1990s. Did immigration contribute to this increase?
Release date: 2014-12-15 - Articles and reports: 75-001-X200911211055Geography: CanadaDescription:
The decline in earnings among immigrants over the past quarter century is well-documented, but its impact on various segments of the immigrant population is less well-known. This study examines long-term trends in the incidence of low income among working-age immigrants, immigrant seniors and the children of immigrants. The study looks at two main factors that contribute to the incidence of low income: market income and government transfers.
Release date: 2009-12-21 - Articles and reports: 11F0019M2007294Geography: CanadaDescription:
The deteriorating economic outcomes among immigrants entering during the 1980s and 1990s have prompted much public concern and policy debate. In 1993, immigrant selection procedures were further modified to increase immigrants' educational attainment and the share of immigrants in the "skilled" economic class. By 2000, dramatic increases in the educational attainment of entering immigrants and the share in the skilled class were observed. In the face of these and other changes, this research focuses on three issues: (1) whether entering immigrants economic outcomes improved after 2000 (the last date for which we have such information from the census), (2) low-income dynamics among successive cohorts of entering immigrants, including changes in the entry and exit probabilities, and the extent of "chronic" low income among successive cohorts, and, (3) whether rising educational attainment and increasing share in the "skilled" class resulted in improvements in economic outcomes as measured by poverty entry, exit and chronic low income.
Release date: 2007-01-30 - 9. Low Wage and Low Income ArchivedArticles and reports: 75F0002M2006006Description:
This report examines the transitions into and out of low income and the persistence of low income among Canadians. It also examines the incidence of low wage among full-time workers and the extent to which low wage workers live in low income families.
Release date: 2006-04-06 - Articles and reports: 11F0019M2005262Geography: CanadaDescription:
This paper reviews the increase in the earnings gap between immigrants and Canadian-born over the past two decades, and the current explanations of this labour market deterioration among recent immigrants in particular. The paper also outlines the rising gap in low-income rates between immigrants and non-immigrants. Like previous research, the paper concludes that the earnings gap at entry has increased for immigrants entering Canada during the 1990s, as compared to those of the 1970s. Furthermore, the gap in the low-income rate has been increasing. The rate of low income has been rising among immigrants (particularly recent immigrants) during the 1990s, while falling among the Canadian-born. The rise in low-income rates among immigrants was widespread, affecting immigrants in all education groups, age groups, and from most source countries (except the "traditional source regions"). Immigrants with university degrees were not excluded from this rise in low-income rates, in spite of the discussion regarding the rising demand for more highly-skilled workers in Canada. As a result of both rising low-income rates among immigrants, and their increasing share of the population, in Canada's major cities virtually all of the increase in the city low-income rates during the 1990s was concentrated among the immigrant population.
Also reviewed here are the explanations discussed in the literature for the deterioration of immigrant economic outcomes. Three major sources are identified as being empirically important, all of which follow from declining labour market outcomes. First, the change in the characteristics of immigrants (e.g., from different source regions, rising levels of educational attainment, etc.) appears to have accounted for about one-third of the increase in the earnings gap at entry (i.e., the gap between immigrants and comparable Canadian-born). Second, decreasing economic returns to foreign work experience appears to play an equally large role. Third, there has been a general decline in the labour market outcomes of all new entrants to the Canadian labour market, and when new immigrants arrive in Canada they, regardless of age, appear to face a similar phenomenon. Other possible explanations are also discussed. Importantly, one potential factor that does not appear to be behind the decline is a reduction in the economic return to education. Immigrants, on average, do have a somewhat lower return to education obtained prior to immigrating (although not to education obtained once in Canada), but this has not changed much over the past two decades.
Release date: 2005-06-27
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Analysis (31)
Analysis (31) (0 to 10 of 31 results)
- Articles and reports: 82-003-X202200200002Description:
Food insecurity linked to insufficient income is an important determinant of health. Whether the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated levels of food insecurity in Canada during the pandemic, particularly among vulnerable groups, is unclear. This study estimated the proportion of Canadians reporting experience of household food insecurity six-to-nine months into the COVID-19 pandemic, and drew comparisons to pre-pandemic levels.
Release date: 2022-02-16 - 2. The Gender Wage Gap in 2018 ArchivedStats in brief: 11-627-M2019065Description:
Based on data from the Labour Force Survey, this infographic highlights the gender wage gap and its sources in 2018.
Release date: 2019-10-07 - Articles and reports: 75F0002M2018001Description:
This study looks at changes introduced in 2018 to the methodology used for the census family low income measure, based on the T1 Family File (T1FF; tax filer data). By making these changes, the methodology becomes better aligned with other data sources at Statistics Canada, such as the Census of Population and the Canadian Income Survey. To account for changes in the methodology, new T1FF standard tables on the census family low income measure (after-tax income), going back to 2004 data, are introduced.
Release date: 2018-04-05 - 4. Low Income Measure: Comparison of Two Data Sources, T1 Family File and 2016 Census of Population ArchivedArticles and reports: 75F0002M2018002Description:
This study looks at the differences in after-tax low income measure (LIM) statistics from two data sources which both use administrative tax data as their principal inputs: the 2016 Census of Population and the T1 Family file (T1FF). It presents a summary of the two data sources and compares after-tax LIM statistics by focussing on unit of analysis, LIM thresholds and the percentage of population below the LIM. The study also explores what factors users may want to consider when choosing one data source over the other.
Release date: 2018-04-05 - Articles and reports: 11F0019M2017397Description:
Rates of low income among immigrants continue to be high relative to the Canadian-born population. This paper examines the rate of chronic low income among immigrants aged 25 or older in Canada during the 2000s. Chronic low income is defined as having a family income under a low income cut-off for five consecutive years or more. A regionally adjusted low-income measure is used for the analysis.
Release date: 2017-09-29 - Articles and reports: 11F0019M2014364Description:
During the 1980s and 1990s, immigration was associated with the rise in low-income rates and family-income inequality in Canada. Over the 2000s, there were significant changes in the labour market and in immigrant selection. This paper focuses on the direct effect of immigration on the change in low income and family-income inequality over the 1995-to-2010 period. The paper outlines recent trends in low-income rates and income inequality for both the Canadian-born and immigrants. The low-income rate in Canada fell during the 2000s. Was this driven in part by changes in economic outcomes among immigrants? Inequality increased considerably in the late 1990s. Did immigration contribute to this increase?
Release date: 2014-12-15 - Articles and reports: 75-001-X200911211055Geography: CanadaDescription:
The decline in earnings among immigrants over the past quarter century is well-documented, but its impact on various segments of the immigrant population is less well-known. This study examines long-term trends in the incidence of low income among working-age immigrants, immigrant seniors and the children of immigrants. The study looks at two main factors that contribute to the incidence of low income: market income and government transfers.
Release date: 2009-12-21 - Articles and reports: 11F0019M2007294Geography: CanadaDescription:
The deteriorating economic outcomes among immigrants entering during the 1980s and 1990s have prompted much public concern and policy debate. In 1993, immigrant selection procedures were further modified to increase immigrants' educational attainment and the share of immigrants in the "skilled" economic class. By 2000, dramatic increases in the educational attainment of entering immigrants and the share in the skilled class were observed. In the face of these and other changes, this research focuses on three issues: (1) whether entering immigrants economic outcomes improved after 2000 (the last date for which we have such information from the census), (2) low-income dynamics among successive cohorts of entering immigrants, including changes in the entry and exit probabilities, and the extent of "chronic" low income among successive cohorts, and, (3) whether rising educational attainment and increasing share in the "skilled" class resulted in improvements in economic outcomes as measured by poverty entry, exit and chronic low income.
Release date: 2007-01-30 - 9. Low Wage and Low Income ArchivedArticles and reports: 75F0002M2006006Description:
This report examines the transitions into and out of low income and the persistence of low income among Canadians. It also examines the incidence of low wage among full-time workers and the extent to which low wage workers live in low income families.
Release date: 2006-04-06 - Articles and reports: 11F0019M2005262Geography: CanadaDescription:
This paper reviews the increase in the earnings gap between immigrants and Canadian-born over the past two decades, and the current explanations of this labour market deterioration among recent immigrants in particular. The paper also outlines the rising gap in low-income rates between immigrants and non-immigrants. Like previous research, the paper concludes that the earnings gap at entry has increased for immigrants entering Canada during the 1990s, as compared to those of the 1970s. Furthermore, the gap in the low-income rate has been increasing. The rate of low income has been rising among immigrants (particularly recent immigrants) during the 1990s, while falling among the Canadian-born. The rise in low-income rates among immigrants was widespread, affecting immigrants in all education groups, age groups, and from most source countries (except the "traditional source regions"). Immigrants with university degrees were not excluded from this rise in low-income rates, in spite of the discussion regarding the rising demand for more highly-skilled workers in Canada. As a result of both rising low-income rates among immigrants, and their increasing share of the population, in Canada's major cities virtually all of the increase in the city low-income rates during the 1990s was concentrated among the immigrant population.
Also reviewed here are the explanations discussed in the literature for the deterioration of immigrant economic outcomes. Three major sources are identified as being empirically important, all of which follow from declining labour market outcomes. First, the change in the characteristics of immigrants (e.g., from different source regions, rising levels of educational attainment, etc.) appears to have accounted for about one-third of the increase in the earnings gap at entry (i.e., the gap between immigrants and comparable Canadian-born). Second, decreasing economic returns to foreign work experience appears to play an equally large role. Third, there has been a general decline in the labour market outcomes of all new entrants to the Canadian labour market, and when new immigrants arrive in Canada they, regardless of age, appear to face a similar phenomenon. Other possible explanations are also discussed. Importantly, one potential factor that does not appear to be behind the decline is a reduction in the economic return to education. Immigrants, on average, do have a somewhat lower return to education obtained prior to immigrating (although not to education obtained once in Canada), but this has not changed much over the past two decades.
Release date: 2005-06-27
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