Canadian Council on Social Development 441 MacLaren Street 4th/e Floor/Étage Ottawa, ON K2P 2H3

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A PROFILE OF POVERTY
IN MID-SIZED ALBERTA CITIES

by Kevin K. Lee and Cheryl Engler

January 2000

     

Section 5: Depth of poverty

 

Family type and depth of poverty

Source: Prepared by the Canadian Council on Social Development using data from Statistics Canada’s 1996 Census, custom tabulations.

As with the poverty rate, the depth of poverty in the mid-sized cities varied by household type.¹¹ As shown in Figure 5.1, most families in the average for these cities had incomes far above the poverty line. For couples with and without children, over 80 per cent had incomes equal to or greater than 1.25 of the appropriate LICO. As well, a substantial proportion of lone-parent families (37.1 per cent) and unattached individuals (48.8 per cent) had incomes above this mark.

However, some households were not that far above the poverty line. It would not take much loss of income for these near-poor households to fall below the line. Among couples with children, only 5.5 per cent were near-poor. In comparison, close to double this proportion of lone-parent families and unattached individuals were near-poor. Not only were lone-parent families and unattached individuals more likely to have incomes below the poverty line, those that were not poor were also at greater risk of becoming poor.

Among households that were poor, a larger proportion of single-parent families and unattached individuals lived in absolute poverty compared to two-parent families. One-fifth (20.2 per cent) of lone-parent families and one-sixth (17.2 per cent) of unattached individuals had incomes less than .5 of LICO. This category would describe, for example, the situation of a single-parent family with two children and an income below $11,171, living in one of the mid-sized communities. Most people would agree that it would be extremely difficult to raise two healthy children on such a paltry income.

Lone-parent families and depth of poverty

Source: Prepared by the Canadian Council on Social Development using data from
Statistics Canada’s 1996 Census, custom tabulations.

Not only did the poverty rate among lone-parent families vary by city, so did their depth of poverty. Figure 5.2 shows depth of poverty among lone-parent families in the five cities included in the study. While Medicine Hat had one of the highest poverty rates for this family type (55.4 per cent), it had the lowest proportion living in absolute poverty (15.8 per cent). On the other hand, Wood Buffalo lone-parent families were among the least likely families of this type to fall below the poverty line (46.9 per cent), but when they did, they were more likely to be living in absolute poverty (23.5 per cent).

     

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