Canada receives a grade on poverty

A new report shows that Canada has shown a little improvement on poverty levels since last year, compared to other wealthy nations. However, Canada ranks near the bottom on a scale of all the developed nations, with only the U.S. and Japan ranking lower.

From this story in the Canadian Press hosted at Google, we learn more about this new report.

A Conference Board of Canada ranking says with more than 12 per cent of the working age population in poverty, Canada ranks 15th out of 17 developed countries, ahead of only Japan and the U.S.

The annual report also suggests more than one in seven Canadian children lives in poverty, resulting in a 13th place ranking.

Conference Board president Anne Golden says considering how wealthy Canada is, "these rates of poverty are unacceptable."

In the overall society category - which measures 17 indicators - Canada ranks ninth, an improvement of one place from last year.