Tis the land of milk and honey! Some fun facts for the brainwashed:
1 in 6 people in Canada live in poverty.
1 in 5 children in British Columbia live in poverty.
1 in 6 Alberta children live below the poverty line.
In Saskatchewan, 26.7 percent of children live in poverty
27.4 percent of children in Manitoba live in poverty
Almost 1 in 5 children in Ontario live in poverty.
51% of indigenous children in Canada live in poverty, and that raises to 60% on reserves.
More than 1 in 5 children live in poverty in Nova Scotia
About 1 in 7 users of shelters is a child.
21% of single mothers in Canada raise their children while living in poverty
(7% of single fathers raise their children in poverty).
Women who work full-time earn about 72 cents for every dollar earned by men.
1 in 5 racialized families live in poverty in Canada, as opposed to 1 in 20 non-racialized families.
Racialized women living in poverty were almost twice as likely to work in manufacturing jobs than other women living in poverty.
Nearly 15% of elderly single individuals live in poverty
1 in 10 Canadians cannot afford to fill their medical prescriptions. Canada is the only industrialized country with a universal healthcare system but without a national pharmacare policy.
Almost 1 in every 5 households experience serious housing affordability issues (spending over 50% of their low income on rent) which puts them at risk of homelessness.
According to the most frequently cited number in national news and other studies, the amount of children in poverty in Canada is approx 1 in 5.
Canada has 37 million people. The United States has 327 million. Let that sink in for a moment.
Update:
I am appalled (but not surprised) at the amount of Canadians living in denial of the facts and accusing me of lying even as I provide statistics and links. More would be given but the data is lacking. Canada didn't start properly tracking child poverty in the northern territories or on reserves until 2016! Data is still often 3-4 years old in recent reports as well.
Since this blog post was written a couple years ago, I've updated with more recent statistic data before re-posting it.
In 1989, all parties in the House of Commons passed a resolution to end child poverty by the year 2000. Since that time, poverty rates have not decreased at all and have increased across the country.
Sources:
http://www.cwp-csp.ca/poverty/just-the-facts/
http://www.nccp.org/topics/childpoverty.html
http://globalnews.ca/news/2360311/nearly-1-in-5-canadian-children-living-in-poverty-report/
https://firstcallbc.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/First_Call_Report_Card_2018_web_Nov_20.pdf
https://globalnews.ca/video/4683561/1-in-6-alberta-children-lives-below-poverty-line
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/sask-poverty-report-2018-1.4916410
https://globalnews.ca/news/4279779/manitoba-riding-has-highest-child-poverty-rate-in-canada-report/
https://www.cwp-csp.ca/resources/resources/shameful-neglect-indigenous-child-poverty-canada
https://globalnews.ca/news/3872633/nova-scotia-still-has-highest-rate-of-child-poverty-in-atlantic-canada-report/
https://www.cpj.ca/sites/default/files/docs/files/Poverty%20Trends%20Report%202018.pdf
