Society—Provincial

Poverty

2013 data for provinces and Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, and Ireland. 2014 data for Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United States. 2011 data for the United Kingdom. 2010 data for France and Switzerland. 2009 data for Japan.

This indicator measures the poverty rate for the total population, after taxes and transfers. Poverty rates are measured as the proportion of individuals with disposable income less than 50 per cent of the median income.

Source: OECD, Regional Well-Being Database.

Income inequality

2013 data for provinces and Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, and Ireland. 2014 data for Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United States. 2011 data for the United Kingdom. 2010 data for France and Switzerland. 2009 data for Japan.

Income inequality is measured by the Gini coefficient, after taxes and transfers. The Gini coefficient calculates the extent to which the distribution of income among individuals within a country or province deviates from a perfectly equal distribution. A Gini coefficient of 0 represents perfect equality; a Gini coefficient of 1 represents perfect inequality.

Source:OECD, Regional Well-Being Database.

Intergenerational income mobility

Circa 2000 data.

Intergenerational income mobility is defined as the extent to which an individual’s income class status is able to change across generations. It is measured by intergenerational earnings elasticity—a higher elasticity number implies that it is more difficult for a person to move outside the income bracket that he or she was born into.

The earnings elasticity data for Canada and the provinces and territories were computed using data for both sons and daughters. Also, family income—i.e., the income of an individual and his or her partner as reported on T1 tax returns—was used to arrive at the elasticity figures. This is the case for both parents and children. Income includes market income (total income before tax minus income from government sources) and transfer income (such as social assistance, unemployment insurance, old age security, and child benefits).

Source: Miles Corak, Divided Landscapes of Economic Opportunity: The Canadian Geography of Intergenerational Income Mobility (Ottawa: University of Ottawa, forthcoming).

Gender wage gap

2016 data for Canada and provinces and territories. 2015 data for Norway, the U.K., and the United States. 2014 data for Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. 2013 data for Sweden. 2012 data for France.

The gender wage gap is calculated as the difference between male and female median full-time weekly earnings as a percentage of male median full-time weekly earnings.

Sources: Statistics Canada, CANSIM table 282-0070, Labour Force Survey Estimates (LFS), Wages of Employees by Type of Work, National Occupational Classification for Statistics (NOC-S), Sex and Age Group; Statistics Canada, custom order; OECD.Stat.

Immigrant wage gap

2015 data.

The immigrant wage gap is measured as the percentage difference in median hourly wages between university-educated landed immigrants and Canadian-born citizens. The wage gap for university-educated individuals is computed to ensure that data for those with similar educational attainment levels are being compared.

Source: Statistics Canada, custom order based on CANSIM table 282-0070, Labour Force Survey Estimates (LFS), Wages of Employees by Type of Work, National Occupational Classification for Statistics (NOC-S), Sex and Age Group.

Racial wage gap

2010 data.

The racial wage gap is measured as the percentage difference in full-year, full-time median wages and salaries between university-educated Canadian-born visible minorities and Caucasians. The wage gap for university-educated individuals is computed to ensure that data for those with similar educational attainment levels are being compared. Wages and salaries refer to gross wages and salaries before deductions for such items as income tax, pensions, and employment insurance.

Source: Statistics Canada, custom order based on 2011 National Household Survey.

Income of people with disabilities

2012 data.

Income for people with disabilities is measured as the percentage of disposable income of people with disabilities as a share of income of people without disabilities.

Source: Statistics Canada, CANSIM table 115-0023, Sources of Income for Adults With and Without Disabilities, by Age Group and Sex, Canada, Provinces, and Territories.

Voter turnout

2015 data for Canada, Denmark, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. 2016 data for Ireland and the United States. 2014 data for Belgium, Japan, and Sweden. 2013 data for Australia, Austria, Germany, and Norway. 2012 data for Finland, France, and the Netherlands.

Voter turnout is measured as the total number of votes cast in the latest national elections as a share of the number of registered voters. National elections refer to parliamentary elections for all countries except for Finland, France, and the United States, where national elections refer to presidential elections.

Sources: Elections Canada, Official Voting Results; International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, Voter Turnout Database.

Jobless youth

2014 data.

This indicator measures the proportion of youth aged 20 to 24 years who are not in education, training, or employment in a given year, as a percentage of the total population of the same age cohort.

Sources: Statistics Canada, Education Indicators in Canada: An International Perspective 2015; OECD.Stat.

Life satisfaction

2014 data for Australia, Canada, and provinces and territories. 2013 data for other peer countries.

Life satisfaction is measured as the extent to which individuals give favourable evaluations of their overall quality of life at one particular point in time. Data reflect the average score of responses given to the question “how do you feel about your life as a whole right now?” from 2006 to 2014. Responses to this question are given using a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 means “very dissatisfied” and 10 means “very satisfied.” The country, province, or territory score is the mean value of individual responses in that region.

Sources: Statistics Canada, custom order based on Canadian Community Health Survey 2013, 2014; OECD, How’s Life? 2015—Measuring Well-Being.

Social network support

Average of 2006 to 2014 data.

Social network support is measured as the proportion of individuals in each country or province who answered “yes” to the question “If you were in trouble, do you have relatives or friends you can count on to help you whenever you need them, or not?” The data for the social network support indicator are from OECD data based on the Gallup World Poll, which samples about 1,000 people (aged 15 years and older) per country per year using the same questionnaire. Data reflect the average percentage from 2006 to 2014.

Source: OECD, Regional Well-Being Database.

Homicides

Average of 2013 to 2015 data for Canada and the provinces and territories. Average of 2012 to 2014 data for peer countries.

This indicator measures the three-year annual average number of homicides per 100,000 population.

Sources: Statistics Canada, CANSIM table 253-0001, Homicide Survey, Number, and Rates (per 100,000 Population) of Homicide Victims, Canada, Provinces, and Territories; United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UNODC Statistics.

Burglaries

Average of 2013 to 2015 data for Canada and the provinces and territories. Average of 2012 to 2014 data for peer countries.

This indicator measures the three-year annual average number of recorded burglaries per 100,000 population.

Sources: Statistics Canada, CANSIM table 252-0051 Incident-Based Crime Statistics, by Detailed Violations; United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UNODC Statistics.

Suicides

Average of 2010 to 2012 data.

This indicator measures the three-year annual average number of deaths due to suicide per 100,000 population. To make the data comparable, the provincial data were age-standardized to the OECD population using the OECD’s data for Canada as a reference. Age-standardization allows populations to be compared when the age distributions of the populations are different—for example, when comparing one jurisdiction with a relatively young population (perhaps due to high birth and death rates) to one with a relatively old population (perhaps due to low birth and death rates). To account for these differences in age structure, age-standardization involves generating “a weighted average of the age-specific mortality rates per 100,000 persons, where the weights are proportions of persons in the corresponding age groups of [a world] standard population.” (World Health Organization, Age-Standardized Death Rates per 100,000 by Cause)

Sources: Statistics Canada, CANSIM table 102-0552, Age-Standardized Mortality Rates by Selected Causes, By Sex; OECD.Stat.