2013 BC Poverty Report Card
The latest figures from Statistics Canada (2011) once again show that BC is the worst province in Canada when it comes to major measures of child poverty:
BC had a child poverty rate of 18.6 percent – the worst rate of any province in Canada, using the before-tax low income cut-offs of Statistics Canada as the measure of poverty.
BC had the worst poverty rate of any province for children living in single mother families – 49.8 percent.
BC also had the worst poverty rate of any province for children living in two-parent families – 14 percent.
BC’s poverty rate for children under 6 years at 20.7 percent is 8 percentage points higher than the Canadian average.
British Columbia also had the most unequal distribution of income among rich and poor families with children. The ratio of the average incomes of the richest ten percent compared to the poorest ten percent was 12. 6 – the worst of any province.
Despite these shameful facts, and a decade of similarly dismal statistics, BC has inexplicably refused to follow the lead of most other provincial and territorial governments, of all political persuasions, to develop and implement a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy.
For more information and to download the full report go here.
