Poverty and Inequality

— May 18, 2023
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Thinking About Poverty Part 2: Counting the Poor—The Empirical Evidence

Counting the Poor: The Empirical Evidence is the second part of the Thinking About Poverty series by Senior Fellow Christopher A. Sarlo. The new study finds that three different Statistics Canada models for measuring poverty are broadly consistent: Income poverty for households is in the five to seven per cent range; and for individuals, it is in the four to six per cent range. Critically, the study also measures consumption poverty, which measures what households consume rather than counting their income. This is important because many low-income households will draw on savings, charity, assistance from family, etc. that assists them but doesn’t appear in income statistics. Consumption poverty was less than three per cent of Canadians in 2019, which points to an all-time low for “basic needs” poverty in Canada.

— Dec 15, 2022
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Generosity in Canada: The 2022 Generosity Index

Generosity in Canada: The 2022 Generosity Index finds that the total amount donated to registered charities by Canadians in 2020—just 0.49 per cent of their income—is the lowest amount since at least 2000. Moreover, the number of Canadians donating to charity—as a percentage of all tax filers—has fallen from 25.5 per cent to 19.1 per cent over the past two decades.

— Sep 22, 2022
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Thinking About Poverty

Thinking About Poverty: Counting The Poor is the first essay in a two-part series that examines the difficulty in measuring poverty in Canada, and in particular spotlights problems with using the Market Basket Measure approach. But because poverty is a serious personal problem for many Canadians, and that it’s also an important social and economic concern that influences government spending and policy, it is crucial to get the measurement of poverty right.

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