One in four Canadians can’t afford an unexpected $500 outlay, a Statistics Canada study released Monday shows.
Data from last fall’s Canadian Social Survey shows that 26% of Canadians don’t have $500 to spare. This rate rises to 29% for women compared to 24% for men.
People aged 35 to 44 are particularly unlikely to be able to afford an unexpected $500 expense at a rate of 35%, while that rate drops to 19% for seniors 65 and older.
More broadly, 35% of Canadians surveyed said their household had struggled to support itself financially over the past year amid the inflationary crisis. Note that the consumer price index jumped 6.8% in 2022, the highest rate in 40 years, with transport costs (10.6%) and groceries (8.9%) in particular rising significantly.
However, Quebecers appear to be doing better than their counterparts in the rest of the country, as just 29% of respondents from La Belle province said they have struggled to make ends meet in the past year, compared to 38% in the provinces of the Atlantic and US prairies, Statistics Canada found.