No progress, no plan: What the latest poverty numbers tell us

The latest national poverty data confirms a grim trend: poverty continues to rise among almost every demographic group and in nearly every province and territory in Canada. More and more people cannot afford the basic necessities that we all need for a decent standard of living and a dignified life.

These findings come from the Canadian Income Survey (CIS), an annual cross-sectional survey that examines the incomes and demographic characteristics of a sample of people in Canada. Statistics Canada released the results from the 2023 cycle in May 2025.

Using the Market Basket Measure (MBM), the official poverty line for Canada, Maytree uses the CIS to understand the state of poverty in Canada. This complements our related work on welfare incomes to ensure that everyone can realize their right to an adequate standard of living.

Poverty continues to rise, returning to pre-pandemic levels

In 2023, roughly 10.2 per cent of the population lived in poverty, representing about 4,000,000 people. This is up from 9.9 per cent in 2022 and marks the third consecutive yearly increase.

Importantly, Canada’s overall poverty level is now nearly identical to what it was in 2019 right before the pandemic, when 10.3 per cent of the population lived in poverty.

To put this figure in context, let’s think about what happened over the past few years. When the pandemic hit, governments stepped up in new and creative ways to protect the people who were most exposed to the economic shock. For example, the federal government introduced temporary measures such as the Canada Emergency Response Benefit. These efforts drove down poverty rates and housing insecurity during this time, as we wrote in last year’s poverty analysis.

Sadly, the gains in poverty reduction and, ultimately, to people’s income stability, have been lost. This was and remains a policy choice. Governments could have explored ways to sustain more of these effective interventions, creating a permanently stronger social safety net for the people in deepest need. Rather than “build back better,” we’ve returned to the policy status quo, causing more people to struggle to survive on low incomes.

If these trends continue, the federal government will not meet its target to cut poverty in half by 2030 compared to 2015 levels. Even worse, we’re getting worryingly close to backtracking on the 2020 poverty reduction target to reduce poverty by 20 per cent compared to 2015. The government’s own National Advisory Council on Poverty has raised the alarm about this trend, and there is still no realistic policy prescription that would see Canada meet its 2030 targets.

It’s also important to note that the average depth of poverty in Canada is increasing. In 2023, people experiencing poverty had average incomes that were equal to roughly two-thirds of the poverty line. In 2022 and prior to the pandemic, incomes were closer, on average, to the poverty line. In other words, more people are in poverty, and they are also in deeper poverty.

Child poverty is driving this trend

Compared to 2022, the 2023 poverty rate for children under age 18 grew at a faster pace than it did for other age groups. As shown in Figure 1, child poverty increased from 9.9 per cent in 2022 to 10.7 per cent in 2023, a level of poverty for this group not seen since 2017.

Figure 1: Poverty rates (MBM), by age group

Figure 2 shows what’s driving this trend: increasing poverty among children living in households led by lone-parent females. From 2022 to 2023, the poverty rate among this group increased by 2.4 percentage points, from 26.9 per cent to 29.3 per cent.

Figure 2: Poverty rates (MBM), select family types

These trends should be of great concern to policymakers.

Prior to the pandemic, child poverty was on a consistent downward trajectory year after year, including among children living in households headed by lone-parent females. This decrease has largely been attributed to the introduction of the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) in 2016. The recent uptick in child poverty suggests that the positive effect of the CCB is at risk of being eroded by high costs and a difficult labour market. Despite the value of the CCB being indexed to inflation, it is not keeping up with the needs of families, and lone-parent female households seem to be faring the worst.

Single working-age adults still face the highest poverty rates

Similarly, single working-age adults without children continued to experience high poverty, reaching a shocking 31.4 per cent in 2023 (See Figure 2). While poverty for this group is not growing quite as fast as it is for children, more single working-age adults without children experience poverty in general – a trend that has been consistent since 2017.

The high rate of poverty experienced among single working-age adults is a reflection of the lack of income supports available to this demographic. In 2023, Maytree’s analysis of welfare incomes found that among people who received social assistance, single adults of working age who were considered employable had the least adequate incomes of all of the household types we examined.

Poverty among seniors is down thanks to higher income supports

In contrast with children and working-age adults, seniors’ poverty has improved, as is shown in Figure 1.

In 2023, only 5 per cent of people aged 65 and older experienced poverty, a 1 percentage point reduction over 2022. Importantly, this is the lowest poverty rate experienced among seniors since 2015, except for the mid-pandemic low of 3.1 per cent in 2020.

Unlike working-age adults, the drop in seniors’ poverty was across family types. Fewer seniors who were in economic families (e.g., couple families and those who lived with other family members) and single seniors alike experienced poverty in 2023 compared with 2022.

The decline in seniors’ poverty is likely the result of the recent 10 per cent increase to Old Age Security (OAS) benefits for seniors aged 75 and older. While this increase began in 2022, it didn’t take effect until July of that year, meaning that the 2023 data would be the first year where the full impact of the increase is shown. Importantly, seniors’ benefits, such as OAS and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) for those with low incomes, grow with inflation, whereas most social assistance benefits don’t. This fact likely contributes to the widening the gap in poverty rates between working-age adults and seniors.   

Disability poverty remains high but dropped slightly

As shown in Figure 3, the proportion of people with disabilities who experience poverty also improved in 2023, though very slightly. Compared with 2022, their poverty rate dropped by 0.3 percentage points from 12.3 per cent in 2022 to 12 per cent in 2023. However, people with disabilities are still more likely to experience poverty than those who do not have disabilities (12 per cent vs. 7.7 per cent, respectively).

Figure 3: Poverty rates (MBM), comparison of people with and without disabilities

The new Canada Disability Benefit (CDB), which will begin to flow funds in July 2025, may help alleviate the depth of poverty among people with disabilities; but it is not nearly enough to significantly reduce poverty among this group. As Maytree has highlighted, the impact of the CDB may also be reduced thanks to access barriers, limited eligibility, and potential clawbacks from other income security programs. The lag in poverty data means we won’t begin to see any impacts of the CDB until the 2025 CIS data is released in 2027.

Some equity-deserving populations are experiencing higher and increasing rates of poverty

Racialized people (counted as the “visible minority population” in the CIS), Indigenous people, and immigrants saw their poverty rates increase again in 2023. Among these populations, Indigenous people experienced the highest poverty rate at 17.5 percent, whereas racialized people saw their poverty rate grow the fastest since 2022, rising from 13 to 14 per cent (a one percentage point increase).

Figure 4: Poverty rates (MBM) for selected equity-deserving populations

Poverty is increasing in most provinces

While the experience of poverty can vary significantly depending on where you live, most provinces saw poverty increase in 2023. Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan led the pack at 12.9 percent, while Quebec once again had the lowest poverty rate at 7.4 per cent.

Of note, as shown in Figure 5, poverty rates in 2023 were higher than they were before the pandemic in six provinces, with the highest increase seen in New Brunswick (11.6 per cent in 2023 vs. 9.9 per cent in 2019).

Figure 5: Poverty rates (MBM) by province

Beyond the poverty line: Food and housing insecurity are also worsening

The MBM is just one of many measures that we can use to understand poverty in Canada. The CIS also asks questions about food insecurity, an important self-reported indicator of how well people can meet their basic needs.

Unfortunately, in 2023, many more people reported that they experienced some level of food insecurity compared to 2022. In particular, 19.1 per cent of people lived in households that reported they experienced moderate or severe food insecurity, an increase of roughly 2.2 percentage points from 2022 (16.9 per cent) and 8.3 percentage points from 2019 (10.8 per cent).

Unlike poverty measured by the MBM, the proportion of people who reported experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity increased for everyone examined – no family type or age group reported greater food security in 2023 (see Figure 6). Of note, people in lone-parent households reported the highest increase in feelings of moderate or severe food insecurity compared with 2022, suggesting that food costs are hitting these families the hardest.

Figure 6: Moderate or severe food insecurity by economic family type

Although the CIS doesn’t report on housing insecurity, Statistics Canada tracks the number of people in housing need in both the Census and the biennial Canadian Housing Survey (CHS), the results of which recently came out for 2022. Housing need is a measure that is closely related to poverty, since for lower-income people, housing costs often make up a larger proportion of their budget compared to the rest of the population.

While CHS data is a year behind the already delayed data from the CIS, it showed that in 2022, the share of households who experienced core housing need had returned to levels seen before the pandemic (11.6 per cent in 2023 compared to 11.3 per cent in 2018), though there was much more going on below the surface. Core housing need is a complex metric, but it’s overwhelmingly driven by a lack of affordability. Of the households in the provinces who experienced core housing need, just over 88 per cent faced challenges affording their housing. Like in previous years, renter households were the most likely to experience housing need, with more renters in market housing facing affordability challenges compared to other renters. And like the CIS, the CHS data showed that lone-parent families, especially when led by women, and unattached single adults, had higher rates of core housing need compared to other family types.

Although the federal government has previously committed to cut chronic homelessness in half by 2030, and housing need by 530,000 households by 2027-28, the CHS data shows that we are not making significant progress towards meeting these goals.

Of course, these goals are not the sole task of the federal government to meet. Given that advancing the human right to adequate housing is the collective responsibility of all governments in Canada, provinces, territories, and local governments need to significantly step up their efforts, too.

We know the solution to poverty

As poverty in Canada continues to track in the wrong direction, it’s clear that the status quo is not working. Recent and planned investments in the income security system are nowhere near enough to reverse current trends and permanently lower poverty rates.

The good news? Progress in seniors’ poverty shows the way forward: income supports. As shown in Figure 7, the trajectory of poverty closely matches that of government transfers. For reasons explored above, seniors saw higher median transfers in 2023 and experienced a corresponding decrease in their poverty rate. The other groups pictured in the figure saw slight decreases in government transfers, and their poverty rates ticked up.

Figure 7: Median government transfers, select family types, in 2023 constant dollars

This is an oversimplification of the dynamics of poverty, but it tells us about solutions that work. The challenge is mustering up the political will to act.

With this in mind, we encourage the new federal government to look at how it can improve the income security system for working-age individuals and families. This could include looking at existing supports, like the Canada Child Benefit and the goods and services/harmonized sales tax (GST/HST) credit, or bringing in new benefits such as a Groceries and Essentials Benefit. It also means working with the provinces and territories to raise and index social assistance benefits and expand and make permanent a demand-side housing support, such as the Canada Housing Benefit.

Above all, it’s clear that Canada needs a new poverty reduction strategy that weaves together various policy solutions and sets us on a credible path to achieving our 2030 poverty reduction targets. Just as the former government’s National Housing Strategy was grounded in the human right to adequate housing, a new poverty reduction plan should be grounded in the human right to an adequate standard of living – a right Canada committed to nearly 50 years ago. Such a plan will also require a holistic approach, with specific goals and accountability mechanisms related to food insecurity, housing need, and homelessness. 

The big picture: Nation-building includes social infrastructure

While governments at all levels are quick to invest in physical infrastructure in the face of economic headwinds, too often they neglect our equally important social infrastructure that can help to meet economic goals.

Investing in more support for those in greatest need is often portrayed as a tax that damages our competitiveness. But rising poverty, homelessness, and food insecurity are economically damaging and have multi-generational repercussions on our long-term productivity. This works through a myriad of channels, from poorer health and lower education outcomes, to less of a willingness to take entrepreneurial risks.

The newly elected federal government says it is committed to thinking “big” and acting “bigger.” Part of this agenda includes seeking out nation-building projects that will build out Canada’s economy.

Here’s a big idea with both economic and social dividends: let’s end poverty and homelessness in Canada.

The latest batch of data from the CIS is just one of many examples of evidence that shows us what we already know: we need to build a stronger Canada from the bottom up. Thinking big means not settling for this continuing decline – it means setting our sights on ending poverty and homelessness, and recognizing that every person has a right to an adequate standard of living.