1 in 3 Canadians are living in households with financial difficulties: StatCan

Statistics Canada found that one in three Canadians live in households that struggled to pay for necessary expenses such as housing, food and clothing throughout October.

One in three Canadians say they are living in a household that is experiencing financial hardship, a new Statistics Canada report has found.

Individuals aged 15 and older reported living in households that found it difficult or very difficult to pay for necessary expenses such as transportation, housing, food and clothing throughout the month of October.

The report, released Friday, found that 41.3 per cent of renters were more likely to struggle financially compared with those living in a residence owned by a household member with a mortgage. Financial pressure eased even more for those living with owners without a mortgage.

“While the proportion of people in households finding it either difficult or very difficult to meet financial needs in October 2023 was down slightly compared with the same month a year earlier (35.5%), it remained notably higher than the proportion recorded in October 2020 (20.4%),” the report said.

Among the largest regions in Canada, the highest proportion of people living in financially strapped households was in southern Ontario.

Almost half of respondents in the St. Catharines-Niagara area reported financial hardship at 41.8 per cent. Next was Windsor at 41 per cent, Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo at 40.7 per cent, and Toronto at 38.1 per cent. The lowest proportion was in the Quebec City region at 20.5 per cent.

Year-over-year growth in the Consumer Price Index decelerated from a peak of 8.1 per cent in June 2022 to 3.8 per cent in September 2023, the report says, but many Canadians are still feeling a major financial pinch.

“The higher cost of essential goods and services continues to place financial pressures on many households across Canada. In September, for example, increases in the cost of shelter (+6.0%) and food (+5.9%) outpaced annual wage growth (+5.0%),” it said.