No change in Canadianís income in 2010

There is nothing in this story that Canadians donít already know. Itís just that Statistics Canada now has the numerical proof. According to its Income of Canadians 2010, after-tax income for families of two or more people in 2010 was virtually unchanged from 2009, making it the third consecutive year that family incomes have stayed flat.

Indeed, 2010 median after-tax income was $65,500 vs. $65,400 in 2009, expressed in constant 2010 dollars. (The median is the level of income at which half of the population had higher income and half had lower.) The report, based on 2010 annual income information provided by participants in the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics, tells us two-parent families with children fared slightly better, with median after-tax income of $78,800 in 2010 vs $77,200 in 2009.

It heads downward from there and that, too, is no surprise. The median for female lone-parent families was $38,700, while families headed by a senior had a median after-tax income of $46,800. Unattached seniors received $23,400 in 2010 while unattached non-seniors had a median income of $27,500.

According to StatsCan, 3 million Canadians, or 9.0% of the population, lived in low income in 2010, virtually the same number as in 2009. In 2000, this proportion was 12.5%.