Low income measure (LIM) thresholds by household size for market income, total income and after-tax income, in current and constant dollars, annual.

Upper income limit, income share and average of market, total and after-tax income by economic family type and income decile, annual.

Low income cut-offs (LICOs) before and after tax by community size and family size, in current dollars, annual.

In 2022, 9.9 percent of all Canadians were living in low income. Between 2000 and 2022, the percentage of population with low income experienced a decrease, reaching the lowest value in 2020. The highest share of Canadians with low income was recorded in 2015, with 14.5 percent of the total population.

Low Income Measures

The low income measures (LIMs) were developed by Statistics Canada in the 1990s. They, along with the low income cut-offs (LICOs) and the market basket measure (MBM), were created in order to measure and track the low income population of Canada. With low income measures, individuals are classified as being in low income if their income falls below fifty percent of the median adjusted household income. The median income is adjusted in order to reflect the differing financial needs of households based on the number of its members. The low income measures are a useful tool to compare low income populations between countries as they do not rely on an arbitrary standard of what constitutes the threshold for poverty. Statistics Canada insists that the low income measures are not meant to be representative of a poverty rate. The department has no measure which they define as a measurement of poverty in Canada. Latest data and trends In 2022, around 2.1 million people were living in low income families in Canada. This figure has been fluctuating over the years, both in absolute numbers and in proportion over the total population. More women than men were living in low income families in 2022, though the number of men in low income has risen at twice the rate as that of women. One of the more drastic changes has been the rise in the number of single individuals living in low income, increasing by more than 60 percent since 2000.

Note: The data release is complete as of August 14th, 2023. 1. (Added April 4th) Canada and Census Divisions = Early April 2023 2. (Added May 1st) Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta Census Subdivisions (CSDs) = Late April 2023 3a. (Added June 8th) Manitoba and Saskatchewan CSDs 3b. (Added June 12th) Quebec CSDs = June 12th 2023 4. (Added June 30th) Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia CSDs = Early July 2023 5. (Added August 14th) Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut CSDs = Early August 2023. For more information, please visit HART.ubc.ca. Housing Assessment Resource Tools (HART) This dataset contains 18 tables which draw upon data from the 2021 Census of Canada. The tables are a custom order and contains data pertaining to core housing need and characteristics of households. 17 of the tables each cover a different geography in Canada: one for Canada as a whole, one for all Canadian census divisions (CD), and 15 for all census subdivisions (CSD) across Canada. The last table contains the median income for all geographies. Statistics Canada used these median incomes as the "area median household income (AMHI)," from which they derived some of the data fields within the Shelter Costs/Household Income dimension. Included alongside the data tables is a guide to HART's housing need assessment methodology. This guide is intended to support independent use of HART's custom data both to allow for transparent verification of our analysis, as well as supporting efforts to utilize the data for analysis beyond what HART did. There are many data fields in the data order that we did not use that may be of value for others. The dataset is in Beyond 20/20 (.ivt) format. The Beyond 20/20 browser is required in order to open it. This software can be freely downloaded from the Statistics Canada website: https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/public/beyond20-20 (Windows only). For information on how to use Beyond 20/20, please see: http://odesi2.scholarsportal.info/documentation/Beyond2020/beyond20-quickstart.pdf https://wiki.ubc.ca/Library:Beyond_20/20_Guide Custom order from Statistics Canada includes the following dimensions and data fields: Geography: - Country of Canada, all CDs & Country as a whole - All 10 Provinces (Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island (PEI), Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia), all CSDs & each Province as a whole - All 3 Territories (Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Yukon), all CSDs & each Territory as a whole Data Quality and Suppression: - The global non-response rate (GNR) is an important measure of census data quality. It combines total non-response (households) and partial non-response (questions). A lower GNR indicates a lower risk of non-response bias and, as a result, a lower risk of inaccuracy. The counts and estimates for geographic areas with a GNR equal to or greater than 50% are not published in the standard products. The counts and estimates for these areas have a high risk of non-response bias, and in most cases, should not be released. - Area suppression is used to replace all income characteristic data with an 'x' for geographic areas with populations and/or number of households below a specific threshold. If a tabulation contains quantitative income data (e.g., total income, wages), qualitative data based on income concepts (e.g., low income before tax status) or derived data based on quantitative income variables (e.g., indexes) for individuals, families or households, then the following rule applies: income characteristic data are replaced with an 'x' for areas where the population is less than 250 or where the number of private households is less than 40. Source: Statistics Canada - When showing count data, Statistics Canada employs random rounding in order to reduce the possibility of identifying individuals within the tabulations. Random rounding transforms all raw counts to random rounded counts. Reducing the possibility of identifying individuals within the tabulations becomes pertinent for very small (sub)populations. All counts greater than 10 are rounded to a base of 5, meaning they will end in either 0 or 5. The random rounding algorithm controls the results and rounds the unit value of the count according to a predetermined frequency. Counts ending in 0 or 5 are not changed. Counts of 10 or less are rounded to a base of 10, meaning they will be rounded to either 10 or zero. Universe: Full Universe: Private Households in Non-farm Non-band Off-reserve Occupied Private Dwellings with Income Greater than zero. Households examined for Core Housing Need: Private, non-farm, non-reserve, owner- or renter-households with incomes greater than zero and shelter-cost-to-income ratios less than 100% are assessed for 'Core Housing Need.' Non-family Households with at least one household maintainer aged 15 to 29 attending school are considered not to be in Core Housing...

This table presents income shares, thresholds, tax shares, and total counts of individual Canadian tax filers, with a focus on high income individuals (95% income threshold, 99% threshold, etc.). Income thresholds are geography-specific; for example, the number of Nova Scotians in the top 1% will be calculated as the number of taxfiling Nova Scotians whose total income exceeded the 99% income threshold of Nova Scotian tax filers. Different definitions of income are available in the table namely market, total, and after-tax income, both with and without capital gains.