Postsecondary enrolment rates by parental income: National and sub-national trends from 2001 to 2022

Obtaining a postsecondary education is an important factor in long-term labour market success (Frenette 2019) and a key mechanism for achieving intergenerational income mobility (Simard-Duplain and St-Denis 2020). Previous research ending in 2014 documented substantial gaps in postsecondary enrolment rates between higher- and lower-income youth (Frenette 2017). Although older research largely found non-financial factors to be direct influencers of these gaps (e.g., parental background, such as education levels and expectations for their children, as well as academic factors such as high school grades and standardized test scores), some students reported financial constraints as the primary reason for not enrolling in postsecondary education (Frenette 2007). Moreover, there is a robust system of student financial assistance (grants, loans and savings incentives) in Canada that is designed to help students in need pay for their postsecondary education. Therefore, continuing to track postsecondary enrolment trends by parental income is informative for policy development. The purpose of this short article is to update the results of Frenette (2017) with more recent data from 2001 to 2022.