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Income Inequality in Canada - Farm versus non-farm families
Abstract
The issue of income inequality cuts across many of the current economic and social pressure points in Canada. Income inequality may limit human resource development and the potential for economic growth. The impact of family income inequality and child poverty is of particular concern, given the importance of positive early childhood experiences. Income inequality is also a factor in growing political alienation and the disjunction in values between the Canadian "elite" and the general population.
This paper shows that, for farm families as a group, there was less income inequality in 1995 than in 1985 and a considerable narrowing of the income inequality gap between farm and non-farm families. In terms of polarization, it shows that the numbers of farm families in all the ranges--top, middle and bottom--of the income distribution remained the same. However, non-farm families in the middle range declined in the period under study. This finding is consistent with the findings of earlier Canadian studies on earnings inequality. Historical Gini coefficients (from 1971) also indicated a steady improvement (decline) in income inequality for farm families.
For more information on this publication, please e-mail: Econ_Research@agr.gc.ca.
Income Inequality in Canada - Farm versus non-farm families (PDF version, 949 KB) - Help on PDF
Publication: 2062/E - ISBN: 0-662-29460-2 - Catalogue: A22-216/2000E - Project: 99127wp