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Comparing Poverty: Canada and the World
How Canada stacks up among similar states
While Canada routinely ranks among the top three countries in the world for overall living standards, UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) has criticized the Canadian government for maintaining disproportionately high levels of child poverty.
In 2001, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) did a study of all 29 of its member states looking at poverty rates and found that 47 million children in these countries live below the poverty line.
The report primarily examines inequality, using the OECD’s own methodology of after-tax relative measurements (i.e. total income is half or less of the average national income).
OECD - Poverty Rates |
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| Country | Mid 1980s | Most Recent |
| Australia | 12.2 | 9.3 |
| Austria | 6.1 | 7.4 |
| Belgium | 10.5 | 7.8 |
| Canada | 11.6 | 10.3 |
| Denmark | 7.0 | 5.0 |
| Finland | 4.9 | |
| France | 8 | 7.5 |
| Germany | 6.4 | 9.4 |
| Greece | 13.4 | 13.8 |
| Hungary | 7.3 | |
| Ireland | 11 | 11 |
| Italy | 10.3 | 14.2 |
| Mexico | 21.3 | 21.9 |
| Netherlands | 3.4 | 6.3 |
| Norway | 6.9 | 10 |
| Sweden | 5.3 | 6.4 |
| Switzerland | 6.2 | |
| Turkey | 16.4 | 16.2 |
| United Kingdom | 6.9 | 10.9 |
| United States | 18.3 | 17.0 |
Förster, M. (2000), “Trends and driving factors in income
distribution and poverty in the OECD area”,
Labour Market and Social Policy Occasional Paper, No. 42, OECD, Paris.
OECD Child Poverty Statistics
Child poverty statistics (i.e. the percentage of families with children under the age of 18 whose income is half or less of the average national income) were also provided.
USA has one of the highest rates of relative child poverty of all OECD members. 22.4 percent of its children live in poverty; second only to
- Mexico, with 26.2 percent
- Italy’s rate is 20.5 percent
- United Kingdom sits at 19.8 percent
- Turkey 19.7 percent
- Canada is at 15.5 percent
- Australia at 12.6 percent
- Germany at 10.7 percent
- Hungary at 10.3 percent
- France at 7.9 percent
- Finland at 4.4 percent
- Sweden 2.6 percent
The report found an overall correlation between higher levels of public expenditures and lower relative poverty measures.