Centre for the Study of Civic Renewal
Fast Facts
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 31, 2001
POVERTY AND THE CANADIAN FAMILY - A STATISTICAL OVERVIEW
• Between 1961 and 1980, real average household income nearly doubled, from $29,109 to $53,877. By 1994 it was $54,153.
• The proportion of after-tax income available to families in the bottom 20% of the income distribution increased between 1975 and 1994. However, for low to middle income families, their share of after-tax income dropped.
• In 1997, working families with a before-tax income of between $20,000 and $40,000 paid the highest marginal taxes in Canada.
• Between 1982 and 1992, the share of poor families headed by a senior citizen dropped from 20.4% to 8.0%. During the same period, the share of poor families headed by lone mothers increased from 19.4% to 31.6%.
• Between 1990 and 1995, lone-parent families experienced a decline in earnings of 8%, twice that experienced by two-parent families.
SOURCES: All statistics from Statistics Canada.
