Core Target 6: Social Condition

Where BC Ranks, Provincial Comparison

Core Target Six is based on an average of the province’s ranking across five performance indicators (PI 22-PI 26). BC ranked ninth in overall social condition for 2009.

BC ranked sixth on the Social Condition Index in 1990, improved to third in 1993 but deteriorated through the rest of the 1990s and into the next decade such that it sank to last place for 2001 and 2002. Improvements between 2002 and 2007 saw BC reach fifth place in 2006 and 2007 but rank changes on low birth weights and long-term unemployment brought BC to seventh in 2008 and ninth in 2009.

Ranks for income assistance, crime and LICO have been stable for much of the 2000s which masks considerable improvement.

The proportion of the population relying on income assistance declined by almost half, changing BC’s rank from a middling sixth to a strong second. Crime rates fell by one-third resulting in a rank improvement from ninth to eighth. In addition, the gap between BC and seventh-place Alberta dropped from 29 to five percent. Similarly, LICO fell by almost thirty percent and although BC still ranks last, the gap between it and ninth-ranked Ontario fell from 50 to 19 percent.

BC's LICO rank has remained stable because other provinces have had similar improvements. BC ranks second on income assistance which gives it little room for improvement and BC’s crime rate was so much higher than most other provinces in 1998 that a 37 percent decline since 2003, relative to 24 percent for Canada, only earned BC an improvement from ninth to eighth.

Why It's Important Social Condition measures provide an indication of a jurisdiction’s inequality, security and incentives.

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