Canada still in the middle of high-income countries on child poverty, new UNICEF report

Despite some progress, Canada can do more to protect its children from poverty

TORONTO, December 6, 2023 – A report published today by UNICEF’s Office of Research - Innocenti reveals that Canada ranks 19th of 39 high-income countries for its current rate of child poverty. Findings show Canada remains a middle performer on child poverty, leaving almost one million children poor.

UNICEF Report Card 18 compares levels of child poverty in the richest countries, the progress they have been making to end it, and how well their policies protect every child from poverty.

“As a G7 country with one of world’s largest economies, Canada can aim higher than a middle ranking among high-income countries,” said Sevaun Palvetzian, President and CEO of UNICEF Canada. “This year’s UNICEF Report Card shows that despite some top grades, Canada’s work to lift children out of poverty is not done. We have more homework to do here in Canada.”

The report indicates that Canada has made significant progress to reduce its child poverty rate over the past decade due in large measure to the Canada Child Benefit and pandemic income transfers. However, despite these fragile gains, about 18 per cent of children in Canada still live in poverty. With child poverty rates of about 10 per cent or less, Denmark, Slovenia and Finland set the bar for high-income countries.

Leaving children in poverty is a choice

In Child Poverty in Canada: Let’s Finish This, the Canadian Companion to the global report, UNICEF Canada digs deeper into the impacts of poverty, discrimination and exclusion on children in Canada. It notes that Canada’s “family-friendly” social protection and care policies – income benefits, parental leave and childcare – leave too many children out.

Other key findings from the report include:

• Canada ranks 25th of 38 countries in the level of spending on child-focused income benefits.
• Canada is one of 10 countries where the poverty rate for children in lone parent families exceeds 40 per cent.
• In 2021, child poverty increased in Canada for the first time in years.

“Poverty is a human rights violation that is disproportionately experienced by those facing systemic marginalization including Indigenous Peoples, racialized and immigrant communities, those with disabilities, lone mothers, youth in the child welfare system among others,” said Leila Sarangi, National Director of Campaign 2000, a UNICEF Canada partner. “We are a wealthy nation, we have the means, we now need more political will.”

To put an end to child poverty in Canada and improve their health and development, UNICEF Canada calls on all levels of government to:

1. Implement a low-income supplement to the Canada Child Benefit and ensure access for administratively excluded children. Tax-funded social transfers and income benefits are the most effective means of addressing child poverty, which continues to dampen the lives of close to one million children in Canada.
2. Guarantee every infant adequate parenting time and income support. Canada’s parental benefits exclude close to one in three infants. Indigenous children and children in families with low-income, or with parents in precarious employment, are disproportionately left out. We must make these policies fully inclusive and fair.
3. Provide every child with healthy food at school, every school day. Canada is currently the only G7 country that doesn’t have nationally available school food programs. Yet we know that the positive impacts on child health, learning and inclusion would be priceless.

“Children have one chance at childhood, the most sensitive stage of human development. They pay the highest price when our policies and programs don’t prioritize their wellbeing,” said Palvetzian.

Download the global report here, and the Canadian Companion here.

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About UNICEF’s Report Card Series

As the world’s knowledge leader for children, UNICEF is committed to collecting and sharing critical information on the situation of children around the world. For more than 20 years, UNICEF has published a Report Card series on the well-being of children in high-income countries. By making this data and analysis publicly available, parliamentarians and policy-makers have the information they need to make decisions in the best interest of every child, and all Canadians, including those working in the child well-being sector, will have the tools they need to be a part of the solution.