Tackling child poverty: a call for bold solutions
November 18, 2024
Ontario Campaign 2000 has released the 2024 report card on child and family poverty in Ontario, Tackling Child Poverty: A Call for Bold Solutions.
This year’s report finds an alarming increase in child and family poverty rates in Ontario. For two years in a row, from 2020 to 2022, Ontario experienced the highest increases in child poverty rates ever recorded and the fastest growing rate among the provinces. In 2022 alone, child poverty rates in Ontario increased by 3.5 percentage points, representing over 100,000 more children living in poverty.
The report examines disparities in marginalized communities and puts forward a path to eradicating poverty in Ontario by implementing achievable and inclusive recommendations on decent work, childcare, housing, income security, issues affecting youth and food insecurity, among others.
Key findings from the 2024 Ontario Report Card:
- More than half a million children (550, 080) under 18 are living in poverty or nearly 1 in 5 children.
- Increase of 3.5% (over 100,000) of children living in poverty in one year, the largest increase on record.
- Ontario had the largest increase in poverty compared to all other provinces.
- Rates of poverty for children under 6 were at 20.4% (174, 740 children).
- Ontario’s child poverty rate is higher than the national rate for children under 18 and under 6.
- Child and family poverty rates are significantly higher than they were pre-COVID, as pandemic emergency benefits have expired.
- 351, 410 families with children were living in poverty, a 56, 380 increase from the year prior.
- Lone-parent families made up the majority of families living in poverty in Ontario.
- Child poverty existed in all 121 federal ridings across Ontario, Toronto Centre had the highest level of child poverty with more than one-third of children living in poverty in that riding.
Ontario’s current poverty reduction strategy is not meeting the needs of vulnerable populations in the province. Alarming increases in child and family poverty rates are a cause for concern and should be a call to action. The upcoming renewal of the provincial poverty reduction strategy is a time to reflect and build on the programs and initiatives that have worked and commit to bold actions to intercept and reverse rising poverty rates.
Want to read more? Click to read the 2024 report card in English; and the press release in English .