Poverty rate holds steady at 11%, well above 2020 levels: StatCan

Statistics Canada says the country’s poverty rate barely budged in 2024, remaining more than 50 per cent above 2020 levels.

The agency says 11 per cent of Canadians — about 4.5 million people — lived in poverty in 2024 versus 11.1 per cent in 2023 and seven per cent in 2020.

It says Nunavut recorded the highest poverty rate at 31.7 per cent due to the high cost of living in much of the North, followed by British Columbia at 13 per cent and Ontario at 12.5 per cent.

As in previous years, Quebec notched the lowest poverty rate at seven per cent.