By Age Groups By Age and Sex By Geography By Family Type Low income can be measured by the Low Income Measure After Tax (LIM-AT), one of a series of low income measures. The LIM is a fixed percentage (50%) of median adjusted household income, where “adjusted” reflects the fact that a household’s needs increase as the number of household members increases. A household is considered to be low income if its after-tax income is less than half of the median after-tax income of all households in Canada, according to the LIM-AT. For example, the low-income after-tax threshold for a family of four was $44,266 in 2015 (Statistics Canada, 2017, Table 4.2 Low-income measures thresholds). This threshold is quite a bit higher than the Low-Income Cut-Off After-Tax (LICO-AT) threshold and thus a higher percentage of the population will be considered low income according to the LIM-AT compared to the LICO-AT. All persons living in a low income household are considered to be living in low income.
According to the 2016 Census, 11.6% of Simcoe Muskoka’s population (or 61,115) were considered to be living in low income based on the LIM-AT in 2015.
Another data source that reports low income according to the LIM-AT is Taxfiler data. Taxfiler data is useful for looking at trends over time as the data is collected on a yearly basis. According to Taxfiler data, the percentage of people living in low income in Simcoe Muskoka and Ontario has slightly declined from 11.9% in 2006 to 10.7% in Simcoe Muskoka and 15.2% in 2006 to 14.3% in Ontario in 2015.
There are slight differences in the percentages reported by the 2016 Census and Taxfiler data. The 2016 Census links census responses to administrative data from the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) including income tax filings, tax slips from employers and financial institutions and other CRA-administered government programs. This allows the inclusion of both tax-filers and non-tax filers. The 2016 Census data also includes all census respondents from private households except for persons living in collective households (e.g. hotels, long-term care homes, hospitals, military bases) and First Nations reserves. Taxfiler data includes all persons who completed a T1 tax return for the year of reference and does not exclude persons living in collective households since information on dwelling type is not available. For this and other reasons, the estimations provided by the 2016 Census may differ from estimations from other data sources such as Taxfiler data.
Low Income (LIM-AT) by Age Groups
According to 2016 Census data, 15,860 children under the age of 18 (15.1%) were living in low income. Specifically, the age group with the highest proportion living in low income according to the Low Income Measure After Tax (LIM-AT) in Simcoe Muskoka were children aged 0 to 4 years (16% or 4,415). The age group with the lowest proportion living in low income was seniors aged 65 years and over (10% or 9,270).
Low Income (LIM-AT) by Age and Sex
Compared to males, a larger percentage of females were living in low income (after-tax) households among the older age categories as measured by the LIM-AT. In Simcoe Muskoka, 11% or 5,780 females aged 65 years and over were living in low income households compared to 8% or 3,500 males.
Approximately 11% (or 12,865) of reproductive aged women (ages 15 to 49) were living in low income according to the LIM-AT in Simcoe Muskoka in 2015.
Low Income (LIM-AT) by Geography
In the County of Simcoe, 53,580 persons or 11.4% of the applicable population were living in low income households in 2015 based on the LIM-AT. Approximately half of the municipalities in Simcoe County fell below 11.4% while the other half were above. Fourteen of 18 eligible municipalities in Simcoe County had a lower prevalence of persons living in low income than Ontario (14.4%).
In the District of Muskoka, 7,535 persons or 13.0% of the applicable population were living in low income households in 2015 based on the LIM-AT. This ranged from a low of 685 persons or 10.5% in Muskoka Lakes to a high of 1,895 persons or 17.1% in Gravenhurst. It should be noted that while 12.1% of the applicable population in Huntsville were living in low income households based on the LIM-AT, this municipality had the highest number of persons living in low income households (2,340) out of all of the municipalities in the District of Muskoka.
Low Income (LIM-AT) by Family Type
According to Taxfiler data, among family types, 4.9% or 6,350 couple families in Simcoe Muskoka were living with low income (after-tax) in 2015. Among lone-parent families, the prevalence of low income was much higher at 28.4% representing 6,480 lone-parent families with low income. Among non-family persons, 23.5% or 18,930 people were living with low income in 2015. Couple families, and non-family persons in Simcoe Muskoka had a lower prevalence of low income when compared to Ontario, while the prevalence of low income for lone-parents families was similar when compared to Ontario. (For more information on Family Types, see Lone-Parent Families.
