Child Poverty in BC is Deepening

Low Income Families with Children Are Falling Further Behind
In 2023, the child poverty rate in British Columbia stood at 16.7% – that’s 149,370 children and youth living in households below the low-income threshold. This is virtually unchanged from 2022 (16.7%; 147,570 children).  However, while the overall child poverty rate changed little from the previous year, the actual number of children living in poverty rose by 1,800 — a reminder that even small shifts in percentage terms represent many families and children affected.

But that apparent statistical ‘stability,’ masks a far more troubling development: the depth of poverty is worsening, and families with children are losing economic resilience at a time of mounting cost pressure.

An Ever Widening Gap
While the overall child poverty rate remained stable, the depth of poverty for all low-income families increased when it came to how far below the poverty line they were. Poor couple families with two children fell $15,674 below the poverty line in 2023, more than the $15,096 gap in 2022. Poor lone-parent families with two children fell $17,109 below, a $1,094 increase in a single year.

These gaps indicate that families are not just living in poverty — they are living further below the line than ever before.  

Lone-Parent Families: Nearly Five Times the Risk
Children in lone-parent families bore the sharpest risk of poverty. In 2023, 45.1% of these children lived in poverty — nearly five times the rate of children in couple families (9.5%). Although lone-parent families represent only 19% of BC children, they account for 53% of those living in poverty.

Most lone-parent households are female-led, and low wages and inadequate supports, such as child care, keep these families stuck in poverty.

Working Hard Yet Still Falling Behind
Even full-time work no longer ensures security. A lone parent working full-time at BC’s 2023 minimum wage earned $29,738 before tax — nearly $19,500 below the poverty line of $49,220. A two-parent family, with both parents working full-time at minimum wage, earned $59,477 — still $10,132 below the 2023 LIM–Before Tax poverty line.

Low wages and precarious work continue to trap families in poverty despite full-time employment.

Crisis of Essentials: Housing, Food, Waitlists
Families face mounting cost pressures for basic needs. In Metro Vancouver, on average, vacant two-bedroom rental units cost 36% more than occupied units, and three-bedroom vacancies cost 56% more. Families with children who struggle in the rental market, who have applied for subsidized housing, made up 37% of the BC Housing waitlist for Metro Vancouver alone, rising from 4,434 in 2019 to 7,864 in March 2024 – a 77% jump.

Food insecurity also rose sharply. In 2023, 33% of BC children, or 288,000 children, experienced food insecurity, up from 29% in 2022.

In March 2025, children accounted for 68,053 of 223,340 food-bank visits (30.5%), reflecting the growing strain on families.

Equity Still Elusive for Indigenous, Racialized, and Rural Families
Child poverty is uneven across BC and deeply connected to systemic inequities. The highest rates in 2023 occurred in the Central Coast (37.8%), Mt. Waddington (30.3%), and Skeena–Queen Charlotte (26.2%) regional districts. Rural children overall faced a 21.1% poverty rate.

Indigenous, racialized, and newcomer families experience consistently higher poverty rates, highlighting persistent barriers that policy must directly address.

Depth of Poverty and Rising Costs
Families living in poverty are falling further behind. The median after-tax income for low-income couple families with two children in 2023 was $37,210 — $98,230 below the median for all couple families ($135,440). Lone-parent families with two children earned a median $62,460, $72,980 less than couple families. Low-income lone-parent families earned $28,690 — $33,770 below the median for all lone-parent families.

Income inequality in BC continues to widen as the highest-earning families pull further ahead. In 2023, the average after-tax income of families in the top 10% was 23 times greater than that of families with the lowest incomes — a larger gap than the national average of 19 times.

The divide is even starker for lone-parent families. In BC, the highest-earning 10% of lone-parent families had average incomes 86 times higher than those with the lowest incomes — nearly triple the national gap (31 times). BC’s inequality for lone-parent families was the highest in the country, well above Alberta, the next most unequal province, where the top 10% earned 50 times more than the bottom 10%.

These disparities illustrate growing inequality and the widening distance between families’ incomes and the costs of daily life.

Why This Matters
Falling deeper below the poverty line has lasting consequences for children. Poverty increases the risk of housing instability, food deprivation, poor health, and educational setbacks. Research shows that early childhood poverty can impede cognitive development and contribute to lifelong health burdens.

Families’ eroding resilience makes temporary hardship more likely to become long-term disadvantage.

Government Supports: Insufficient and Stretched
In 2024, a lone parent with one child on welfare had an income of $29,084 — $14,738 below the poverty line of $43,822. A couple family with two children  had an income of $41,708 — $20,266 below the $61,974 poverty line.

The withdrawal of pandemic supports in 2021 and 2022 exacerbated financial instability.

Without government income supports, including the Canada Child Benefit and the BC Family Benefit, BC’s child poverty rate would have reached 27.7% — impacting an additional 98,120 children.

A Call to Renewed Action: Our Recommendations
The child poverty rate in BC, while not showing a significant spike from last year’s report, should not lull us into a false sense of complacency. We must prevent the deepening of poverty and restore families’ ability to live with dignity. First Call recommends:

• Raise family incomes through living wages and enhanced targeted supplements.
• Index income assistance and child benefits to inflation.
• Target supports for low-income Indigenous, racialized, newcomer, and lone-parent families and families raising children with disabilities.
• Improve access to universal systems and services, including affordable housing, quality child care, health benefits, public education, and public transit.
• Measure and reduce the depth of poverty, not just the rate.

Over two-and-a-half decades since Canada pledged to eliminate child poverty, one in six BC children still live in poverty. Many families face not just survival but entrenching disadvantage. Tackling deepening poverty today will shape the future for a generation of BC children.

Deepening child poverty puts the healthy development of BC’s poor children at greater risk.