Median family income rises two per cent in 2004, Statistics Canada reports

OTTAWA (CP) - Statistics Canada says families with two or more people had an estimated median income after taxes of $54,100 in 2004, up about two per cent from 2003 in real terms after adjusting for inflation. The agency's Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics found the increase was fueled by strong economic growth fostered by gains in employment which in turn boosted market income.

The Canadian economy grew 2.9 per cent in 2004, while full-time employment rose and the unemployment rate declined.

The increase in after-tax income was not shared by all family types, however.

Among senior or elderly families - in which the main income earner was at least 65 years old - the median after-tax income remained virtually unchanged at $38,500.

It was also stable among "unattached individuals," or single people, whose median after-tax income amounted to $21,300, and among female lone-parent families who had a median of $27,700.

The proportion of families living below Statistics Canada's low-income cutoff declined in 2004, reflecting the strong economic conditions.

About 684,000 families were living in low income in 2004, 7.8 per cent of all families.

Some 865,000 children under 18, or 12.8 per cent, were living in low-income families.

© The Canadian Press, 2006