Overview

Abstract (English)

This publication represents Part I of a larger report, which rounds out a comprehensive package produced over the last three years by the United Way of Toronto and York Region (UWTYR) and the Neighbourhood Change Research Partnership (NCRP) to advance understanding of the complex issues of income inequality and polarization and how they are expressed at different geographic scales. Part I, published here, examines changes in income inequality and polarization in the City of Toronto and York Region over the period 1980 through 2012. It provides the first comprehensive picture of income inequality and polarization for York Region, and also the most recent picture of income polarization for the City of Toronto, using the most reliable data currently available. It additionally puts that knowledge into a broader context of other regions within the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), as well as other large metropolitan areas, and examines changes over time since 1980. The report begins by looking at measures of income inequality and polarization that tell the story of the general distribution of income in these two places among households and individuals over time. It then looks at how income inequality and polarization are expressed geographically among neighbourhoods in these places. The findings reveal a general pattern of increasing income inequality and polarization in both the City of Toronto and York Region, although at different levels, and to differing degrees. Nonspatial income inequality and polarization have grown more rapidly among households than among individuals, suggesting that individuals are increasingly forming households with members of their own income group. This portends heightened class differentiation at the household level, with significant consequences for future life chances, regardless of spatial location. The increase in socio-spatial inequality and polarization has generally been more rapid than the increase in their non-spatial counterparts. This suggests that changes in the degree and structure of income segregation are not merely a function of widening income distributions, but also a result of sorting of individuals and households in space based on incomes. Growing socio-spatial income inequality and polarization are problematic because they become embedded in the built environment and the social tapestry of cities, making the new conditions difficult to ameliorate.

Abstract (French)

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