Low Income in Census Metropolitan Areas, 1980 to 2000
by Andrew Heisz and Logan McLeod
Business and Labour Market Analysis Division
Trends and Conditions in Census Metropolitan Areas
April 2004, Catalogue
No. 89-613 No. 1
Context
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.
The objective is to provide statistical measures of trends and conditions
in our larger cities and the neighbourhoods within them. These measures
will be available for use in city planning and in policy development.
Objective(s)
This report paints a statistical portrait of urban income and low income
in Canada. It does so by examining the changes in pre-tax family income
within the nation's 27 biggest metropolitan areas between 1980 and 2000,
based on census data.
The analysis emphasizes low-income rates and the situation of particular
groups at high risk of being in low income, including recent immigrants
(defined as those arriving in Canada during the 10 years preceding the
census), Aboriginal people, single-parent family members, seniors and
children.
It also uses census tract data to analyse changes in income inequality
among various neighbourhoods within individual metropolitan areas. A
low-income neighbourhood is one in which the low-income rate exceeds
40%.
Findings
Median family income and low-income rates changed little change in
most census metropolitan areas (CMAs) in the 1990s. This followed a
decade of growth in median income and decline in low-income rates in
most metropolitan areas in the 1980s, according to the first of nine
reports that shed light on issues of importance for Canada's urban areas.
In the 1980s, most metropolitan area residents shared the economic
growth to some extent. Incomes increased at both the top and the bottom
of the income distribution.
However, in 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.
Low-income rates within CMAs were higher among recent immigrant, Aboriginals
and lone-parent families.
Two large metropolitan areas where the low-income rate increased in
the 1990s were gateway cities of Toronto and Vancouver. In these metropolitan
areas, rising low income in the 1990s was particularly concentrated
among recent immigrants.
In other CMAs, the composition of the low-income population was different.
In Winnipeg, Regina and Saskatoon, Aboriginal people represented more
than 20% of the low-income population.
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.
Finally, this report shows that the income gap between richer and poorer
neighbourhoods rose. In Toronto, for instance, median family income
in the richest 10% of neighbourhoods increased 7 times faster that it
did the poorest 10% of neighbourhoods over the period 1980 to 2000.
Data source(s)
The report examines before-tax income
in CMAs using the 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996 and 2001 Censuses.
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