OTTAWA – Canada is rapidly catching up to the United States as a country divided between haves and have-nots, according to a study issued Tuesday by the Conference Board.
The Conference Board says income inequality has been rising more in Canada than in the United States since the mid-1990s, and faster than in many peer countries.
In fact, the think-tank says Canada had the fourth-largest increase in income disparity among a sample group of 17 advanced economies in the period between the mid-1990s and the late 2000s.
“Even though the U.S. currently has the largest rich-poor income gap among these countries, the gap in Canada has been rising at a faster rate,” said Anne Golden, the board’s chief executive.
“High inequality raises a moral question about fairness and can contribute to social tensions,” she added.
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Overall, income inequality rose in 10 of the countries sampled, rising fastest in Sweden, Finland and Denmark.
Canada was next. Its Gini index, a complicated formula which measures income deviations from a perfectly equal distribution, rose 9.2 per cent to 0.320.
By contrast, the U.S. had the highest income inequality of the group with a Gini reading of 0.378.
The Conference Board notes that Canada’s index number put it in group of countries considered to have a medium range of income inequality.
A reading above 0.4 would designate high levels of income inequality, and under 0.3 indicates a low income gap.
Overall, the Conference Board says income inequality has increased in countries representing 71 per cent of the world’s population. Twenty-two per cent live in countries where inequality is declining.
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