BCPB Home > Benchmarks > Rankings > Performance Indicator 22: Low Income Cut-Offs

Performance Indicator 22: Low Income Cut-Offs

Where BC Ranks, Provincial Comparison

  
Year

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

Rank

9

10

9

10

10

10

10

9

9

9

Performance Indicator Twenty-Two uses data on the number of people with incomes below a level identified by Statistics Canada as relatively low. The province with the lowest proportion earns the best rank.

In 2007, BC ranked second last in Canada with 15.3 percent of families and unattached individuals with incomes below the after-tax low income cut-off (LICO).

All provinces saw decreases in the proportion of people with low income between 1998 and 2007. BC had the third-smallest decrease at 25 percent and Alberta had the largest decrease at 51 percent. BC was also the only province with decreases in its LICO rate in each of the last five years.

BC's rate fell by eight percent between 2006 and 2007. This did not result in a rank improvement, however, because most other provinces had even larger decreases. Prince Edward Island, Alberta and Saskatchewan had decreases in low income rates twice as large as BC's.

A short description of low income measures used in Canada is located in the Low Income Measures Topic Box. An in depth analysis of LICO from the 2008 annual report is available here: Low Income Cut-Offs: Necessary but Insufficient.


Why It's Important
People with low income may experience more physical and mental health problems, rely more on charity, attain lower levels of education, or have higher secondary school drop-out rates.













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