Median income falls in 2022, finds Statistics Canada report
Many Canadians are experiencing financial difficulties today, and one factor that may have contributed to this is that their income dropped a couple of years ago.
The median income of economic families and persons not in an economic family in 2022 was $70,500, down from $73,000 in 2021.
This trend held true across all Canadian family categories. Among individuals, only seniors had a year-over-year increase in income from 2021 to 2022:
|
2021 – After-tax income (in (2022 constant dollars) |
2022 – After-tax income (in (2022 constant dollars) |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Economic families and persons not in an economic family |
$73,000 |
$70,500 |
||
|
Economic families |
$101,600 |
$99,800 |
||
|
Senior families |
$74,600 |
$74,200 |
||
|
Non-senior families |
$110,100 |
$109,500 |
||
|
Couples without children or other relatives |
$98,400 |
$96,700 |
||
|
Two-parent families with children |
$121,500 |
$122,000 |
||
|
Lone-parent families |
$65,400 |
$63,100 |
||
|
Persons not in an economic family |
$38,600 |
$37,800 |
||
|
Seniors |
$33,500 |
$33,600 |
||
|
Non-seniors |
$42,300 |
$40,100 |
||
The full details on the median market income and median income for government transfers from 2019 to 2022 is available on the StatCan website.
Many Canadians nearing retirement are in bad shape financially, according to a recent report from the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC).
Here’s the median after-tax income of families and unattached individuals, Canada and provinces, 2018 to 2022 (in 2022 constant dollars), according to StatCan:
Source: Statistics Canada
Persons living under the poverty line
The number of Canadians living under the poverty line also increased to 3,772,000 – equivalent to 9.9% of the population – in 2022 from 2,762,000 – equivalent to 7.4% – in 2021.
Here’s a breakdown of who was living under the poverty line in 2022:
|
2021 (in thousands) |
2022 (in thousands) |
||
|---|---|---|---|
|
All persons |
2,762 |
3,772 |
|
|
Persons under 18 years old |
462 |
735 |
|
|
In two-parent families |
248 |
403 |
|
|
In female lone-parent families |
142 |
252 |
|
|
Persons 18 to 64 years |
1,917 |
2,607 |
|
|
In economic families |
821 |
1,192 |
|
|
Not in an economic family |
1,096 |
1,415 |
|
|
Persons 65 years and over |
383 |
430 |
|
|
In economic families |
115 |
173 |
|
|
Not in an economic family |
268 |
256 |
|
Recent immigrants face higher poverty rates, but these remain lower than before the pandemic, according to StatCan.
“In 2022, 10.7% of immigrants aged 15 years and older lived below the poverty line, a 2.6 percentage point increase from 2021 (8.1%). The more recent an immigrant's arrival, the more likely they are to be below the poverty line. For example, the poverty rate in 2022 for immigrants who arrived within the previous 10 years was 14.0%, while the poverty rate for immigrants who arrived within the previous 5 years was 16.4%,” it said.
“By comparison, 8.6% of the Canadian-born population aged 15 years and older lived below the poverty line in 2022.”
The full numbers of persons living below the poverty line by selected demographic groups in Canada from 2019 to 2022 is available on the StatCan website.
About 19.5 million Canadians are facing financial vulnerability, according to a report from the Financial Resilience Institute released in October 2023.
Six in 10 (60%) Canadians say people living paycheque to paycheque is today’s norm, according to a previous report from H&R Block Canada.