Low-income levels unchanged in Canada

The statistics office of Canadian government says that low-income levels remain unchanged in Canada since 2008. The people considered to be poor in Canada is 9 percent of the population which amounts to three million people. Income levels for families are also unchanged since 2008.

From the CBC, we read more about the latest statistics from Canada.

Statistics Canada defines low-income as the level where a family spends 63 per cent or more of its income on food, clothing and shelter.

The dollar figure for what constitutes low income varies by family size and by the size of the community but is based on spending patterns studied in 1992 and adjusted each year since then for inflation.

About 606,000 children age 17 or under lived in low-income families in 2008. That also was unchanged from 2007 but was lower than in 2003, when 854,000 lived in low-income families.

The proportion of children in low-income families was 9.0 per cent in 2008, half the peak of 18 per cent in 1996.

Statistics Canada said about 218,000 of these children lived in single-mother families.

Of all children living with single mothers, 23 per cent were part of low-income families in 2008, well below the latest peak of 56 per cent in 1996.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/06/17/canadian-poverty-rate.html#ixzz0r8iHdF65