Canadian incomes went up in 2020 amid uptake of pandemic benefits: census data

July 15, 2022

Statistics Canada’s newly published 2021 census revealed that 20.7 million Canadians received some financial pandemic support from the government in 2020.

The latest data released on Wednesday showed that more than two-thirds of Canadian adults, or 68.4 per cent, received COVID-19 related government benefits, with 27.6 per cent of adults receiving federal emergency and recovery benefits, most often CERB.

The number of people who received the Canada Emergency Response Benefit was 7,621,950. More than 1.1 million people received the Canada Recovery Benefit, for workers not able to work or who had a 50 per cent reduction in earnings.

The data shows that Canadian incomes trended 9.8 per cent higher during the early pandemic than five years earlier, with Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador seeing the only overall decreases. The median after-tax household income was $73,000, a reflection of slow employment income growth over five years and higher government transfers in 2020 specifically.

Source: Vancouver Sun