Left behind in Canada

Who is left behind in Canada?

According to the independent think tank, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), there are several groups of people living in Canada in which Canada as a society fails to secure the LNOB principles.

People With a Disability

People with a disability are almost three times more likely to live in poverty than average Canadians, and this rate increases with the severity of the disability. People living with a disability are also less likely to be employed than average Canadians. In 2017, persons with more severe disabilities (28%) aged 25 to 64 years were more likely to be living in poverty (as measured by the Market Basket Measure) than their counterparts without disabilities (10%) or with milder disabilities (14%) (Morris et al., 2018). Among those aged 25 to 64 years, persons with disabilities were less likely to be employed (59%) than those without disabilities (80%). As the level of disability severity increased, so too did the likelihood of not being employed.

From 2017 to 2022, mental health-related, pain-related, and seeing disabilities had the largest increases, contributing the most to the rise in the Canadian disability rate.

Disability type	Prevalence among the total Canadian population, 2022	Change in rate from 2017, in percentage points
Mental health-related	10.4%	+3.2
Pain-related	16.7%	+2.2
Seeing	7.4%	+2.0
Learning	5.6%	+1.6
Memory	4.9%	+1.1
Mobility	10.6%	+1.0
Flexibility	10.9%	+0.9
Hearing	5.6%	+0.8
Dexterity	5.0%	+0.4
Developmental	1.5%	+0.4
Unknown	0.8%	+0.2

Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Survey on Disability, 2017 and 2022.

In 2022, 27.0% of Canadians aged 15 and over, or 8.0 million people, had at least one disability. This represents an increase of 4.7 percentage points from 2017.

If you have a disability In Canada you are 3X more likely to live in poverty

People from native minority groups

Members of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit (Indigenous People) groups are not only more likely to be poor and to suffer from food insecurity in Canada, they also experience health inequalities that reduce their life expectancy. Data on the early stage of COVID-19 confirm these inequities. A survey from Manitoba showed in 2020 Indigenous Peoples, who represented 13% of Manitoba’s population, accounted for 17% of provincial COVID-19 infections. Data from Ontario showed that racialized groups had a 1.7-to-7.1-fold higher rate of COVID infection and a 1.7-to-9.1-fold higher rate of COVID-19 hospitalization compared to white Ontarians. 

Image: Inuktut written language native of Canada.

Single providing mothers

Female lone parents are affected by food insecurity more than twice as often as the Canadian average. The likelihood increases for women who have low education levels and are unemployed. A large part of this group also identifies as immigrants or people with disabilities. Lone-parent households—especially those headed by a female—have 2.5-times higher food insecurity than the average Canadian household (Tarasuk et al., 2016). In terms of education, women with less than high school diploma attainment are more likely to be lone parents and be out of the workforce, experiencing low rates of employment (Statistics Canada, 2017c). Many women in this group belong to other groups such as immigrants, people with disabilities, and/or Indigenous People.

Table: Women of all ages are more likely than men to have a disability

Age group	Men+	Women+	Total
Total population, 15 years and older	23.9%	29.9%	27.0%
Youth, 15 to 24 years	15.8%	24.7%	20.1%
Working-aged adults, 25 to 64 years	21.1%	26.9%	24.1%
Seniors, 65 years and over	38.9%	41.8%	40.4%

Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Survey on Disability, 2017 and 2022.

The "Women+" category encompasses women and some non-binary individuals, while the "Men+" category includes men and some non-binary individuals. Due to the relatively small number of non-binary respondents, it is often necessary to aggregate data into a two-category gender variable to ensure the confidentiality of the responses.

Recent Immigrants

Recent immigrants are more than three times more likely than average Canadians to suffer from low income. Recent immigrants who are older than 65 or lone parents fare even worse. Food insecurity is more prevalent among recent immigrants than among all Canadians. Recent immigrants are also twice as likely to be affected by core housing needs as other Canadians. Recent immigrants generally suffer from low income. The chronic low-income 3 rate was 2.6 times higher among immigrants than among Canadian-born citizens in 2000, and 3.3 times higher in 2012 (Picot & Lu, 2017). The highest chronic low-income rates in 2012 were observed among recent immigrants over the age of 65. Immigrants who were unattached or lone parents also displayed higher-than-average chronic low-income rates.

Source: IISD, download the report here: link to report

Summing up

As part of its commitment to the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Canada has pledged to ensure that no one is left behind in its development efforts. However, this can only be achieved if we improve our monitoring of the well-being of the country's most vulnerable groups. Although most Canadians have a high standard of living, several groups are still being left behind, with low income affecting almost 15% of Canadian households. These marginalized groups are diverse and include Indigenous Peoples (First Nations, Métis, and Inuit), recent and elderly immigrants, people with disabilities, lone-parent households, and members of the LGBTQ* community.