Thanks to soaring inflation, Canada’s poverty rate will likely jump for 2022, according to new data from Statistics Canada.
Median after-tax income was essentially unchanged at $68,400 in 2021, according to a report on household income from the national statistical agency. The official poverty rate, meanwhile, increased by one percentage point to 7.4% as pandemic-related government transfers declined during the year.
While data on the official poverty rate for 2022 won’t be available until 2024, StatsCan estimated the overall poverty rate soared by 41.5% in 2022, as disposable income growth slowed and household costs, such as food and shelter, rose rapidly.
“Rising costs combined with a slow growth rate in income suggests that some families could fall behind,” StatsCan said, noting that provisional data points to the overall poverty rate having returned to its pre-pandemic level in 2022.
Despite the increase in the poverty rate in 2021, the rate remained lower than the pre-pandemic level of 10.3%.
However, the poverty rate for unattached seniors surpassed its pre-pandemic level, rising to 13.0% in 2021 from just 7.4% in 2020, and above 2019’s 12.0% rate, StatsCan said.