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Making ends meet

Domain

Prosperity

Subdomain

Economic security and deprivation

Indicator

Making ends meet

Note: This indicator is a headline indicator. Headline indicators are intended to provide a high-level assessment of overall quality of life in Canada.

Making ends meet over time
Description - Making ends meet over time

24.1% of the population reported it was easy or very easy for their household to meet its financial needs in Q2 2025.

Making ends meet over time
Easy or very easy for household to meet financial needs
Q3 2021 47.7%
Q4 2021 43.9%
Q1 2022 44.6%
Q2 2022 40.5%
Q3 2022 40.2%
Q4 2022 28.9%
Q1 2023 ..
Q2 2023 34.4%
Q3 2023 31.0%
Q4 2023 26.7%
Q1 2024 30.2%
Q2 2024 23.7%
Q3 2024 28.1%
Q4 2024 29.5%
Q1 2025 33.8%
Q2 2025 24.1%
.. Not available for this reference period

Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Social Survey, 2021 to 2025.

Definition

Percentage of persons living in households by level of difficulty in meeting their financial needs in terms of transportation, housing, food, clothing, and other necessary expenses.

Measurement

This indicator is based on a household's own assessment of its ability to meet its financial needs in terms of transportation, housing, food, clothing, and other necessary expenses. In the Quality of Life Framework, this indicator captures the subjective (or perceived) financial well-being of Canadians, whereas the poverty indicator is an objective measure based on whether a family's income falls below a specified poverty line.

This indicator is measured in selected iterations of the Canadian Social Survey (CSS), the Survey Series on People and their Communities (SSPC), the Survey Series on First Nations People, Métis and Inuit (SSFNPMI) and in the Canadian Housing Survey (CHS). Survey respondents are asked:

In the past 12 months, how difficult or easy was it for your household to meet its financial needs in terms of transportation, housing, food, clothing, and other necessary expenses? Would you say:

  • Very difficult
  • Difficult
  • Neither difficult nor easy
  • Easy
  • Very easy

This indicator has also been collected in selected iterations of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) through its supplement. In the LFS, respondents were asked to report on their level of difficulty in the past month.

Data sources

Data tables and analysis

For products related to making ends meet (prev. financial well-being), including data tables, data visualizations, articles, and other product types see Analytical releases: Making ends meet (prev. financial well-being) or view all analytical releases.

Frameworks

This indicator aligns with the following framework:

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