Child poverty in Canada rose for a third consecutive year in 2025, with nearly 30,000 more children falling below the poverty line, according to the latest Child and Family Poverty Report Card.
The report says progress toward eliminating child poverty is not only stalling but reversing, with rates now approaching levels last seen in 2017, signalling an erosion of gains made after the introduction of the Canada Child Benefit in 2016.
The report says that at the current pace, it would take nearly 400 years to end child poverty in the country.
Poverty continues to be unevenly distributed, disproportionately affecting marginalized groups. Nearly one in five children under six live in poverty. Rates were highest for First Nations families living on reserve and communities in provinces such as Nunavut, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.
Not only is poverty affecting more families, but according to the report, it is also deepening, with low‑income families falling further below the poverty line than before the pandemic and the rate of deep poverty growing consistently since 2020.
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The report also highlights rising food insecurity, with 2.5 million children living in food-insecure households. The number of children in severely food-insecure households doubled between 2019 and 2023.
Children in lone-parent families face particularly high rates of poverty, at 45.2 per cent, compared with 10.1 per cent of children in coupled families.
More than 1.2 million adults, or 6.8 per cent, were living in working poverty, meaning employment income alone was not enough to lift them above the poverty line.
The report calls on the federal government to strengthen its poverty reduction strategy with a detailed action plan that includes new and expanded programs, clear timelines and dedicated funding. It urges Ottawa to shield families from market pressures through greater public investment in child care, housing, health care and mental health support.
It also recommends ensuring wages and income supports work together to lift families above the low-income threshold, while addressing systemic discrimination embedded in poverty reduction efforts.
The report says income benefits and public services must be accessible and responsive to the needs of diverse and systemically marginalized families.
Finally, it calls for reducing income and wealth inequality by making the tax system more progressive to support income adequacy and equity.