Every October, CPJ releases our report on poverty in Canada. It highlights the unequal effects of poverty on racialized people, single-parent families, single seniors and adults, children, persons with disabilities, and Indigenous peoples. We also report on poverty rates of provinces, territories, and communities across Canada. For
Poverty Trends 2020, we adopted an intersectional approach by looking specifically at how experiences of poverty differ depending on overlapping identities such as race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, and immigration status, as well as where we live and our family status.
According to the low-income measure, 5.9 million people in Canada were living in poverty in 2018. Canada’s laws and systems are legally required to protect people’s right to an adequate standard of living. Unfortunately, this is not the reality for millions of people in Canada.
- We all have the right to food, but 1 in 4 single-mother households are food insecure.
- We all have the right to education, but students with disabilities living on reserve or in rural settings do not have access to the same level of supports and services as their peers living off-reserve in urban settings.
- We all have the right to health, but 11.2% of people 12 years or older reported not receiving health care when they needed it.
- We all have the right to safe and fair employment conditions, but 13% of Black Canadians reported experiencing discrimination at work or during hiring, compared to 6% of non-Black Canadians.
- We all have the right to safety & security, but 39% of self-reported violent crimes involved a victim with a disability.
- We all have the right to adequate housing, but 40% of youth experiencing homelessness identified as LGBTQ or Two-Spirit.