Economic and Social Reports, August 2023

There are four new articles available in today's release of Economic and Social Reports.

Comparing Canadians' rent

There is considerable concern about the affordability of rental housing in Canada. However, it can be hard to compare rental costs across different dwellings and regions. Differences in whether landlords or tenants cover utility costs and other amenities further complicate cost comparisons. The study "What's included in Canadians' rent?" uses rental inclusions, meaning the services or amenities, such as utilities, parking, or air conditioning, included as part of tenants' rent, to explore their potential impact on rental costs. For those paying rent, common inclusions are water and other municipal services (71%), appliances (23% in Quebec, but 70% or more in other provinces), parking (53%), electricity (31%), and oil, gas and other fuels (26%).

Rental inclusions are a valuable source of information regarding the comparability of rental costs across Canada. For instance, it is estimated that the inclusion of air conditioning accounts for around 8% of the difference in rental costs between Ontario and Quebec, while the inclusion of appliances accounts for around 7% of the difference in rental costs between the two provinces. In addition, the inclusion of appliances accounts for around 11% of the difference in average rents between British Columbia and Quebec.

New insights about Canada's internationally educated health care professionals

Labour shortages in healthcare professions have become a pressing issue across Canadian jurisdictions and were made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. While federal and provincial/territorial governments have made it easier for skilled immigrants with healthcare qualifications to enter their respective professions, there is a lack of information on numbers, sociodemographic characteristics, and labour market outcomes for internationally educated health professionals (IEHPs). The article "Internationally educated health care professionals in Canada: Sociodemographic characteristics and occupational distribution" presents new information about the distribution of IEHPs across provinces and territories and examines their sociodemographic characteristics and occupations across major fields of study.

The results show that IEHPs are a very diverse group based on their field of study, region of education, highest level of education, period of arrival in Canada, and official language proficiency. About 58% of employed IEHPs in Canada worked in health occupations in 2021, and the proportion working in health occupations was higher among those who studied nursing (69%) or were trained to be physicians (67%) than in other health fields. Across other major fields of study, 63% of IEHPs who studied pharmacy and 60% who studied dentistry were employed in health occupations.

Most racialized groups had a higher rate of poverty than the White group

From 2001 to 2021, the number of racialized people in Canada increased from 3.85 million to 8.87 million. The arrival of new immigrants was the primary driver of this growth, but the second generation had the fastest growth rate, and an increasing proportion of racialized people are Canadian born.

This issue of Economic and Social Reports includes two articles that look at racialized groups, their population growth and poverty rates: "Poverty among racialized groups across generations" and "Changing demographics of racialized people in Canada." Read more in the Daily release "Poverty persists among some racialized Canadians from the first generation to the third generation or more."