Research summary: Poverty among working age persons with and without disabilities in Canada

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Why this study

Canada's Poverty Reduction Strategy indicates that persons with disabilities are more likely to live in poverty. The study examined the relationship between the risk of living in poverty and the characteristics of persons with and without disabilities. The study looked at persons aged 18 to 64 years old.

What we did

We used the 2017 Canadian Survey on Disability. The study consists of 2 parts:

• descriptive statistics were used to examine variations in poverty rates among persons with disabilities. Variables that were looked at included select socio-demographic and disability characteristics. These results were also compared to those for persons without disabilities
• logistic regression analyses were used. They helped assess the link between key socio-demographic characteristics and the risk of living in poverty. This was done for persons both with and without disabilities. We used the same techniques again. This time, we compared the risk of living in poverty. We looked at whether the risk is greater for persons with disabilities or those without disabilities. For this analysis, we controlled for key socio-demographic characteristics

We examined the following socio-demographic characteristics for both persons with, and without, disabilities:

• age
• sex
• highest educational attainment
• living arrangements
• employment status
• occupation type
• skill level
• community of residence size
• immigration status
• skill in either official language (English and/or French)
• minority status

For persons with disabilities, additional disability-specific characteristics included:

• disability severity (less severe vs. more severe)
• number of disability types (1 vs. 2 or 3 vs. 4 or more)
• grouped disability types (sensory, physical, mental-cognitive, combination)
• disability dynamics (progressive, recurrent, fluctuating, continuous), and
• age of disability onset

What we found

The main findings show:

• women (21.3%) and men (20.0%) with disabilities were almost twice as likely to live in poverty compared to their counterparts without disabilities (11.4% and 10.7% respectively)
• persons with "more severe" disabilities (26.0%) were 1.4 times more likely to be living in poverty compared to those with "less severe" disabilities (18.3%). They were 1.8 times more likely to be living in poverty than those without disabilities (14.4%)

Regardless of disability status, poverty rates were higher among those who were:

• aged 18 to 24 years compared to their counterparts aged 45 to 64 years
• either lone parents or living alone compared to those who were part of a couple without children
• with high school or less education compared to those with either college, CEGEP or bachelor's degree or above
• employed part-time, unemployed, or not in the labour force compared to those employed full-time

The regression analysis showed important results. Even after accounting for key factors, people with disabilities were still more likely to live in poverty. Their chances were 1.7 times higher than those without disabilities. The models also looked at disability and social characteristics. Several factors were found to predict poverty among people with disabilities:

• disability severity
• disability dynamics
• age
• education
• living arrangement, and
• employment status

What it means

The study shows that having a disability increases the risk of living in poverty. This is true even when other important factors are considered. These results are important for policies and programs. They show that people with disabilities are more affected by poverty than others.

Contact us

Strategic and Service Policy Branch, Social Policy Directorate, Social Research Division

Email: esdc.nc.sspb.research-recherche.dgpss.cn.edsc@hrsdc-rhdcc.gc.ca