Low Income in Canada: 2000-2006 Using the Market Basket Measure - October 2008

6. High-Risk Groups

The previous section identified the importance of a family's MIR recording significant annual hours of paid work to reduce the risk of experiencing both annual and persistent low income. In this section, we examine a number of other socio-demographic groups identified by research as being particularly likely to experience persistent low income.¹⁹

These groups, designated as "high-risk" groups, are lone parents with at least one child under age 18; unattached individuals aged 45-64; persons with work-limiting physical or mental disabilities; recent immigrants (those who came to Canada within the past 10 years); and Aboriginal Canadians living off-reserve.²⁰ An economic family where the MIR is a member of any of these groups is said to be a high-risk family.²¹

6.1 Incidence

In 2006, the incidence of low income, using the MBM, for all working-age economic families was 17.2%. However, as Table 4a shows, for families whose MIR belonged to at least one of the high-risk groups, the incidence of low income averaged 28.4%. This was almost three times higher than the 10.1% rate for economic families where the MIR was not a member of a high-risk group. In families where the MIR belonged to more than one high-risk group (for example, an unattached individual 45 to 64 with work-limiting disabilities), the incidence of low income was much higher (45.0%). If they belonged to only one high-risk group, the incidence was slightly lower (23.0%) (data not shown in table).

Between 2000 and 2006, for families where the MIR was a member of at least one high-risk group, the incidence of low income fell from 35.9% to 28.4%.

There was a statistically significant decline in the incidence of low income over this period for three of the five high-risk groups. The exceptions were Aboriginal Canadians living off-reserve and recent immigrants. The higher risk of experiencing low income in the high-risk groups is reflected by their disproportionate share of persons living in low income. In 2006, 38.0% of all working-age families had as their MIR a member of a high-risk group. But 63.3% of low-income working age families had as their MIR a member of a high-risk group. Similarly, 36.4% of all children under age 18 were in families where the MIR was a member of a high-risk group. But a full 69.1% of low-income children were in such families (data not shown in table).

6.2 Depth

While there was a slightly greater depth of low income for families headed by non-high-risk group members than high-risk group members and between children in these families (Tables 5a and 5b), these differences were not statistically significant. Among the five high-risk groups, the depth of low income was smallest for families where the MIR was a lone parent and largest for families where the MIR was an unattached individual aged 45 to 64. There was no statistically significant difference in the depth of low income for children by high-risk group status.

6.3 Persistence

As Table 6a shows, over the period from 2002 to 2006, the incidence of persistent low income for MIRs 18 to 60 years of age was 9.7%. If they were not a member of a high-risk group in 2002, the incidence of persistent low income was only 4.6%. However, it was 20.1% (4.4 times higher) if they were a member of at least one high-risk group. The ratio was only 2.8 times higher for the incidence of annual low income in 2006 for MIRs in high-risk groups as opposed to those not in high-risk groups (Table 4a). Thus, the MIRs in high-risk groups were even more likely to experience persistent low income than they were to experience low income in the year 2006, compared to MIRs who were not members of a high-risk group. The incidence of persistent low income over the 2002 to 2006 period among the high-risk groups ranged from 17.4% for Aboriginal Canadians living off-reserve to 26.3% for persons with work-limiting disabilities.

As revealed in Table 6b, depending on the risk group status of their MIR in that year, similar patterns held over the period from 2002 to 2006 for children under age 14 in 2002. Children living in lone-parent families or with a MIR who was an off-reserve Aboriginal Canadian were those most likely to experience persistent low income.