A spatial analysis of income inequality among Aboriginal People in Canada

Overview

Abstract (English)

An extensive literature has examined the widening gap between the rich and the poor in Canada. Little is known, however, about income inequality among Canada’s Aboriginal population. In this paper, we use data from the 2012 Aboriginal Peoples survey (APS) to map income inequality among First Nations people living off reserve, and to compare it to that observed in the general population. Specifically, we compute the Gini coefficient of household income by using total annual income reported in the APS adjusted for household size. A low Gini coefficient indicates a more equal distribution, with 0 corresponding to complete equality, while a high Gini coefficient indicates a more unequal distribution, with 1 corresponding to complete inequality (Kennedy et al., 1996). The calculated Gini coefficient allows dividing the Aboriginal population in quartiles of area income inequality at three levels: province, census metropolitan area, and census division. Corresponding values for the general population are obtained from Statistics Canada’s Canadian Socio-economic Information Management (CANSIM) database. Results are presented in a map format, to better allow comparing different levels of income inequality among Aboriginal people and Canada’s general population.

Abstract (French)

An extensive literature has examined the widening gap between the rich and the poor in Canada. Little is known, however, about income inequality among Canada’s Aboriginal population. In this paper, we use data from the 2012 Aboriginal Peoples survey (APS) to map income inequality among First Nations people living off reserve, and to compare it to that observed in the general population. Specifically, we compute the Gini coefficient of household income by using total annual income reported in the APS adjusted for household size. A low Gini coefficient indicates a more equal distribution, with 0 corresponding to complete equality, while a high Gini coefficient indicates a more unequal distribution, with 1 corresponding to complete inequality (Kennedy et al., 1996). The calculated Gini coefficient allows dividing the Aboriginal population in quartiles of area income inequality at three levels: province, census metropolitan area, and census division. Corresponding values for the general population are obtained from Statistics Canada’s Canadian Socio-economic Information Management (CANSIM) database. Results are presented in a map format, to better allow comparing different levels of income inequality among Aboriginal people and Canada’s general population.