- Almost 1 in 4 British Columbian children lives in poverty. That's 23.5% or 196,000 children. That is about the same as the entire population of Burnaby or the entire populations of Nanaimo, Kelowna and Williams Lake combined.
- The BC rate of child poverty is the highest in Canada, with the national average coming in at 17.7 percent.
- Census figures show that Aboriginal children have a poverty rate that is almost twice as large as for non-aboriginal children.
- The rate of poverty for BC children in two-parent families has grown to 16.2% from a low of 5.4% in 1980.
- The poverty rate for BC children living in families headed by lone-parent mothers was 62.8 percent in 2004.
- Government policies make a difference. Child poverty rates in Canada, U.K., Sweden and the U.S. are similar before government taxes and transfers (22.8, 25.4, 18. and 26.6 percent respectively). In Sweden, the child poverty rate drops to 4.2 percent compared to Canada where it only drops to 14.9 percent after taxes and transfers. U.K reduces it's child poverty rates to 15.4 percent while the U.S. to 21.9 percent after taxes and transfers.
- The four Nordic countries - Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden - have the most effective government action against child poverty, which dropped to 2.5% to 4.2% after government intervention.
- Government intervention to reduce child poverty does not need to come at the expense of economic competitiveness. The four Nordic countries were all ranked in the top 10 in the World Economic Forum's 2005 report on global Competitiveness.
Sources: BC Campaign 2000 Fact Sheets, 2005 and 2006.
