An accessible, reliable system to support children and families is critical to encouraging child well-being and women’s labour force participation. Ambitious improvements to policies supporting children and families could also support increased fertility rates, creating improved conditions for population growth.
Indicators in this section assess the state of supports for children and families, and the well-being of children in Canada.
The report discusses how child well-being can vary significantly across Canada, highlighting access and equity challenges in early childhood supports. It also notes the detrimental impact of Covid-19 for Canada’s youth, including on mental health.
According to the Market Basket Measure, Canada’s official poverty line, there has been a decline in Canada’s child poverty rate in recent years (from 16.4% in 2015 to 10.8% in 2018). Another key approach to measuring poverty, the Low Income Measure, shows more modest progress. While declines in child poverty rates are a good step, there is still more work needed to reach the ultimate goal of elimination.
Canada had 10.8% of children in low income in 2018.
Continued decrease in child poverty in Canada, with a goal to eliminate it.
Children who live in poverty are more likely to stay in poverty throughout their lives. They are also more likely to experience adverse impacts to their physical and mental health. Child poverty rates are particularly high among Indigenous and racialized children in Canada. Government investments in direct transfers to families with children have helped move this indicator in the right direction, toward lower levels of poverty for Canadian children. The economic effects of Covid-19 have the potential to upend recent progress.
Participation in child care in Canada, according to available data (which does not cover all forms of early learning and child care) is currently below the OECD average. Due to a lack of internationally comparable data, the degree to which Canada is falling behind in participation is not fully known. Canada’s lack of a national policy on child care also puts it behind many comparable countries, though this could change with new federal commitments to developing a national child care system. Provincial-territorial collaboration will be key to success.
Canada had 59.9% of children aged 0 to 5 in some form of child care outside of the immediate family (not including kindergarten) in 2019.
Top 10 of OECD countries.
Threshold: 10th in the OECD was New Zealand with a 72.3% enrolment rate for 0 to 5 year-olds in 2017.
The way in which the OECD tracks early learning and child care enrolment is not directly comparable to Canada, however, OECD data provides a general benchmark to which Canada can be compared.
Robust systems for quality early childhood education and care can improve children’s future skills development, well-being and learning. It can enable greater participation in the labour force by parents, particularly mothers, which is essential to our economic recovery from Covid-19, and to longer-term prosperity. There are disparities in participation in child care across Canada. Access and affordability have been identified as among the top challenges in obtaining child care in Canada.
Canada’s parental leave system provides value to many new parents, but more could be done to strengthen it. While the duration of leave is comparable to many countries, the pay level is low, and many new parents are not eligible to receive benefits. Canada’s parental leave policies also offer limited benefits to partners and spouses of recent mothers (even with changes to parental leave policies in this direction in 2019).
Canada ranked 20th out of 35 OECD countries in 2018.
Canada had 26.6 weeks of parental leave available in full-rate equivalent support (defined as the length of paid leave if benefits were paid at 100% of previous earnings) in 2018.
Top 10 of OECD countries.
Threshold: 10th was Germany with 48.3 weeks in 2018.
Paid parental leave supports new parents and particularly mothers in temporarily exiting employment with job security and income support to care for infants. Parental leave policies can impact decisions on whether to have children. There are several challenges with Canada’s current system including eligibility and level of pay. Parental leave benefits are not accessible to all who need them because of their connection with Canada’s Employment Insurance system, which has relatively high qualification requirements. Quebec’s more generous parental leave program (QPIP) is distinct from the rest of Canada.
Canada has not improved its child and youth well-being ranking in more than a decade while nearly one-third of similar countries have seen improvement. Canada has declined significantly in its ranking from 10th to 30th between 2010 and 2020. Challenges to youth well-being have generally been exacerbated by the impacts of Covid-19.
Canada ranked 30th among 38 rich countries in the well-being of children and youth under age 18 in UNICEF’s 2020 report card.
Top 10 ranking in future UNICEF report cards on the well-being of children and youth.
The 2020 report card included targets that align with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
The 2020 UNICEF report card includes 22 indicators in categories such as environment, skills, economy, relationships, society, education, health, economy, budget, mental well-being and physical health—all important factors to the development of children. Higher levels of well-being will help to encourage people to raise their families in Canada. Challenges to youth well-being have been exacerbated by Covid-19.