The median after-tax income was stagnant for the majority of Canadians in 2018, according to data released by Statistics Canada on Monday.
For Canadian families, median after-tax income was $61,400, up only slightly from $59,800 in 2017. The median after-tax income of senior families and unattached individuals remained virtually unchanged as well, at $63,500 and $30,700, respectively.
For non-senior families, the median after-tax income increased by $2,300 to $91,600 in 2018. Within this group, couples with children saw an increase of $2,700 to $101,900.
Statistics Canada attributed the growth in after-tax income to gains in market income — which includes employment income, retirement income and income from investments — led by couples with children, whose median market income rose by $4,400 to $108,700 in 2018.
Geographically, the median after-tax income of families and unattached individuals remained relatively stable in every province except Ontario, where it increased by 3.3% to $66,200 due to growth in market income.
Alberta families and unattached individuals had the highest after-tax income, at $72,700, while those in Nova Scotia had the lowest, at $52,200.
StatsCan also found that the proportion of Canadians living below the official poverty line declined to 8.7% in 2018, down from 9.5% in 2017. There were 216,000 seniors living in poverty, down from 238,000 in 2017.