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

Number of persons in low income, low income rate and average gap ratio by age, sex and economic family type, 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.

This table contains 8840 series, with data for years 2012 - 2012 (not all combinations necessarily have data for all years). This table contains data described by the following dimensions (Not all combinations are available): Geography (13 items: Canada; Atlantic provinces; Newfoundland and Labrador; Prince Edward Island; ...); Low income lines (4 items: Low income cut-offs after tax, 1992 base; Low income cut-offs before tax, 1992 base; Market basket measure, 2011 base; Low income measure after tax); Statistics (5 items: Number of persons in low income; Percentage of persons in low income; Average gap ratio (percent); Median gap ratio (percent); ...); Persons in low income (34 items: All persons; Persons under 18 years; Persons 18 to 64 years; Persons 65 years and over; ...).

Low income statistics by age, sex and economic family type, annual.

Low income cut-offs before and after tax by community size, one person, 2011 constant dollars.

Families of tax filers; Before-tax and after-tax low income status (based on census family low income measures, LIM) by family type and family composition (final T1 Family File; T1FF).

Comprehensive dataset of 308 Low income housing programs in Canada as of July, 2025. Includes verified contact information (email, phone), geocoded addresses, customer ratings, reviews, business categories, and operational details. Perfect for market research, lead generation, competitive analysis, and business intelligence. Download a complimentary sample to evaluate data quality and completeness.

Poverty and low-income statistics by disability status, age group, sex and economic family type, Canada, annual.

Poverty and low-income statistics by visible minority group, Indigenous group and immigration status, Canada and provinces.

Income data has been used extensively by researchers to better understand the economic well-being of Canadians. To meet the needs of these users, Statistics Canada has produced numerous cross-sectional public use microdata files (PUMFs). PUMFs for the Survey of Consumer Finance (SCF) were released until reference year 1997. With the end of the SCF, PUMFs for the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) were produced for reference years 1996 to 2011. The Canadian Income Survey (CIS) was introduced for the 2012 reference year. The CIS is a crosssectional survey developed to provide information on the income and income sources of Canadians, with their individual and household characteristics. It is a short questionnaire which is asked of a subsample of respondents to the Labour Force Survey (LFS), gathering information on labour market activity, school attendance, support payments, child care expenses, inter-household transfers, personal income, food security and characteristics and costs of housing. The CIS content is supplemented with information from the LFS on individual and household characteristics (e.g. age, educational attainment, main job characteristics, and family type) and with tax data for income and income sources (Statistics Canada, 2019). The CIS PUMF is an anonymized microdata file that contains only a subset of variables that are available on the CIS master file. Various techniques have been employed to protect CIS respondents against the risk of disclosure.

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

Low income statistics by economic family type, Canada, provinces and selected census metropolitan areas (CMAs)

Low income measures by household size and income source, Canada

Poverty and low-income statistics by visible minority group, Indigenous group and immigration status, Canada and provinces.

Individual low-income status by low-income measure (before and after tax), age and gender for Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions.

This table provides information on the number of years in low income over an eight-year period among Canadian taxfilers. The years in low-income may or may not be adjacent to each other. The low income measure (LIM) is used to identify low income taxfilers. The LIM threshold is calculated as half of the median of the adjusted family after-tax income of all taxfilers and their family members. This table uses two different types of LIM: the variable LIM is based on the median total income re-calculated each year, while the fixed LIM is based on the median total income in 2002 adjusted yearly by the all-items Consumer Price Index.

Individual low-income status for economic family characteristics (in couple, with and without children, one-parent families) by low-income measure (before and after tax).

Families of tax filers; After-tax low income status of census families based on Census Family Low Income Measure (CFLIM-AT), by family type and family composition (final T1 Family File; T1FF).

The percentage of low-income individuals in the population is defined by low-income measures (LIMs). LIMs are relative measures of low income, set at 50.0% of adjusted median household income. These measures are categorized according to the number of people present in the household, reflecting the economies of scale inherent in household size. Data is sourced from Statistics Canada and reflects post-tax income.