Canadians’ Adjusted Median Income Has Fallen, Young Families Most Impacted: StatCan

People make their way along Sparks Street in downtown Ottawa on June 18, 2024. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick

The median family income has seen a year-over-year decrease in all parts of Canada due to inflation, according to numbers from Statistics Canada.

In 2022, after-tax income was $60,800, according to data released on Aug. 19. While that was a 2.5 percent increase from 2021, when including the annual inflation of 6.8 percent, after-tax income was 4 percent lower than the previous year.

The decrease in median family income was seen in all provinces and territories, StatCan said. The largest decrease was in Nunavut at minus 8.4 percent, followed by the Northwest Territories at minus 7.2 percent. Nova Scotia saw the third lowest drop in family income at minus 5.6 percent.

StatCan said that the median family after-tax income for 2022 was about equal to pre-pandemic income.

Broken down by province, Quebec, the Yukon, and B.C. saw increases in the median family income from 2019 by 5 percent, 1.7 percent, and 1.3 percent respectively.

All other provinces saw a drop in family income. The largest decreases were in Nunavut at minus 6.4 percent, Alberta at minus 4.1 percent, and Ontario at minus 1.9 percent.

StatCan said there were multiple factors leading to the lower income number, including changes in wages, salaries, and commissions.

Family Types

Almost all types of family groups saw a drop in median income in 2022, when adjusted for inflation, StatCan said.

Younger families saw the biggest decrease, with single-parent families where the parent was under 25 years old seeing a 15.1 percent decrease in income. Median income for this family group was $24,690, according to the data.

Single Canadians 25 years and younger saw a 12.9 percent drop in median income to $17,650. That was the lowest median income of all family groups.

Couples 25 years and younger saw a 9 percent decline in median income to $45,070 in 2022.

Older Canadians also saw a decrease, but not as much as younger families.

Median after-tax income for all senior family types fell by 1.8 percent to $49,820. Senior couples saw a 1.4 percent decrease in median income, and senior single parents saw a 1.4 percent drop to $69,880. Single seniors earned $30,820 in 2022, a decrease of 1.2 percent, StatCan said.

Some cities saw increases in median family income between 2019 and 2022, with the biggest increase in Sherbrooke at 6.2 percent. Montreal saw the second highest income increase 5.2 percent, followed by Trois-Rivières at 5.2 percent and Saguenay at 5.1 percent.

Cities that saw the largest decrease in family income were Edmonton at minus 5.1 percent, Windsor at minus 4.3 percent, and Kitchener–Cambridge–Waterloo at 4.1 percent.