Tuesday, April 20, 2004

Rich neighbourhoods get richer

Family incomes stagnated during the 1990s in Canada’s 27 largest metropolitan areas, but the gap between rich and poor neighbourhoods widened, according to a far-reaching new report.

The study showed that median income of families living in a metropolitan area in 2000 amounted to $62,300, up 1% from 1990.

During the 1980s, however, median family income had gone up 5%. (Median is the point at which half of families had higher income and half less.)

During the 1990s, growth was concentrated more among high-income families, with the income of low-income families growing little, or declining, in most metropolitan areas.

As a result, the income gap widened between richer and poorer neighbourhoods. Also, the low-income rate in all metropolitan areas combined rose slightly from 17.2% to 17.7% between 1990 and 2000.

This report is the first of a series that develops statistical measures to shed light on issues of importance for Canada's cities. Statistics Canada has worked on this project in collaboration with the Cities Secretariat of the Privy Council Office.

Recent immigrants

The report also showed that certain demographic groups such as recent immigrants and Aboriginal people were much more likely to be in low income.

In addition, people in low income who lived in urban areas received much less of their income from earnings, and more from government transfers than their counterparts two decades earlier.

The widening income gap between between lower- and higher-income neighbourhoods is best illustrated in Toronto.

There, median family income in the poorest 10% of neighbourhoods amounted to $32,900 in 2000, up 2.6% from 1980. In the richest 10% of neighbourhoods, it was $92,800, a 17.4% gain.

Low-income neighbourhoods

The proportion of neighbourhoods that were low-income neighbourhoods remained relatively stable in the 27 metropolitan areas between 1980 and 2000. (A low-income neighbourhood is one in which the low-income rate exceeds 40%.)

In 1980, 6.1% of neighbourhoods in metropolitan areas were low-income neighbourhoods. This proportion nearly doubled to 11.8% in 1995, then fell to 5.8% by 2000 as economic conditions improved.

The first research paper in the new series Trends and Conditions in Census Metropolitan Areas, "Low Income in Census Metropolitan Areas, 1980 to 2000", is now available free online.

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© 2004, Statistics Canada.