The Living Standards domain looks at the level and distribution of income and wealth in the community. This domain reports on the state of employment, poverty and housing affordability, food security and Internet connectivity. In the Canadian Index of Wellbeing table below, indicators report on economic security and housing security. Unfortunately, data regarding food security and work-related stress is limited for our region. The CIW table is supplemented with data from the National Household Survey and the 2016 Census.
Category | Indicator | COUNTIES | REGIONS | Ontario | Canada | |||
Perth | Huron | Rural | West | |||||
Economic Security | After tax median income of economic families. | $76,364 | $72,501 | $71,780 | $74,429 | $79,531 | $76,372 | |
Percentage of persons in low income: | ||||||||
|
11.1 | 13.7 | 14.1 | 15.0 | 14.4 | 14.2 | ||
|
4.6 | 4.3 | 5.3 | 8.3 | 9.8 | 9.2 | ||
|
8.1 | 10.4 | 10.5 | 12.3 | 13.9 | 12.9 | ||
Percentage of labour force employed (employment rate). | 67.0 | 61.0 | 55.3 | 58.1 | 59.9 | 60.2 | ||
Percentage of labour force unemployed (unemployment rate). | 4.0 | 5.3 | 7.5 | 6.9 | 7.4 | 7.7 | ||
Long-term unemployed rate. | 2.4 | 3.2 | 4.4 | 3.9 | 4.3 | 4.4 | ||
Housing Security | Percentage of households with shelter costs 30% or more of before-tax household income. | 20.2 | 20.4 | 22.0 | 23.5 | 27.7 | 24.1 | |
Food Security | Percentage of households that are moderately or severely food insecure. | N/A | 6.7 | 8.0 | 9.4 | 8.3 | 7.7 | |
Work-Related Stress | Percentage of population 15 years of age and older reporting quite a bit or extreme self-perceived work stress. | N/A | 21.5 b | 24.8 | 24.4 | 27.0 | 26.9 |
a Based on Health Units, wich approximate census divisions in most instances.
b Data point based on Perth-Huron Health Unit and assigned to Huron County here.
Canadian Index of Wellbeing, University of Waterloo (July 2020) A Profile of Wellbeing in Perth and Huron Counties: Benchmarking Indicators of Wellbeing based on the CIW, Prepared for: Social Research and Planning Council operated by the United Way Perth Huron.