The Economic Well-Being of Canadian Children

The goal of this paper is to provide a descriptive comparison of economic outcomes for Canadian children, at the bottom, middle and top of the population income distribution. We use a very wide-angle camera, enabling us to provide a broad picture of differences/changes in families, policies and child outcomes. First, we describe some important changes over time in the families in which children live, nationally and by province. Second, we provide an overview of how Canadian policy in support of children has changed and how it differs across provinces. Of particular interest is the fact that the federal government has increased expenditures on child benefits considerably over the past 20 years, and expenditures are expected to grow further with the new Canada Child Benefit introduced in July of 2016 (Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, 2017). Third, we illustrate changes/differences in median incomes, in income distributions and in child poverty both before and after taxes and transfers at different points of time and in different provinces. Finally, we compare economic well-being of children in Canada in 2010 with that experienced by children in eight other similarly affluent countries with different policies to support children.