|
 |
Low Income in Canada: 2000-2002 Using the Market Basket Measure - June 2006
Highlights
- The Market Basket Measure (MBM) is a recently-developed measure of low income based on the cost of a specified basket of goods and services. Three years of data based on this measure are now available. Therefore, an examination of the persistence of low income for various groups over the 2000 to 2002 period can be featured in this report.
- Over the period from 2000 to 2002 the incidence of low income using the MBM declined from 14.8% to 13.7%.
- The incidence of low income for families headed by persons who worked for pay at least 910 hours a year - the definition of "working poor" families used in this report - also declined over the same period from 8.4% to 7.0%. But such families still accounted for almost 30% of working-age, low income families and for just over 40% of low income children.
- Five socio-demographic groups among working-age adults have been identified as being disproportionately at risk of experiencing persistent low income - lone parents with at least one child under age 18; unattached individuals aged 45-64; persons with work-limiting physical or mental disabilities; persons immigrating to Canada within the past 10 years; and, Aboriginal Canadians living off-reserve. Two of these groups - unattached persons 45-64 and persons with work-limiting disabilities - had statistically significant improvements in their low income situation between 2000 and 2002. Changes for the other three groups were not statistically significant.
- Using the Market Basket Measure (MBM), the incidence of low income in 2002 (13.7%) was higher than that (11.6%) using Statistics Canada’s post-income tax Low Income Cut-offs (LICOs-IAT).
- This is not because the MBM low income thresholds are higher than those for the LICOs-IAT, but because the MBM definition of family disposable income compared to those thresholds is much more stringent.
- The share of low income children and adults living in families whose main income recipient worked for pay at least 910 hours is significantly higher using the MBM than using the LICOs-IAT because child care spending and other work-related expenses are deducted from gross family income before comparing it to the low income thresholds.
- The geographical distribution of the low income population is also different using the MBM instead of the LICOs-IAT. Using the MBM, a smaller share of the low income population is found in the largest urban centres while a larger share lives in rural areas.
|
