40,000 N.S. children live in poverty, down slightly from 2022: report

The latest Child and Family Poverty Report finds that nearly a quarter of children in Nova Scotia live in poverty.

More than 40,000 children live in poverty in Nova Scotia, which represents a slight decrease from 2022, according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Nova Scotia.

The research group’s 2025 report card, which used public data from 2023, found that 22.7 per cent of children (40,210) live in poverty, which is a 4.6 per cent decrease from 2022.

The organization’s previous report card found child poverty rose from 20.5 per cent in 2021 to 23.8 per cent in 2022, which was the highest single-year increase in 35 years.

The report says without federal and provincial government income support benefits, the child poverty rate in Nova Scotia in 2022 would have been 38.4 per cent.

“We should be ashamed of the lack of real progress, especially since the child poverty rate for children under six was 24.9 per cent,” the latest report card reads. “While that rate is down from 26.4 per cent in 2022, it remains that one in four children under the age of six lived in poverty.

“Nova Scotia continues to have the highest child poverty rate in Atlantic Canada and the third highest provincial rate in Canada.”

The report noted 38 per cent of Nova Scotia children (68,000) were living in food-insecure homes in 2023. It also found that three Atlantic Canada provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador) were among the top five Canadian provinces with the highest rates of children living in food-insecure homes.

The report found child poverty rates were all above 30 per cent in Annapolis, Digby and Queens counties. Victoria County also saw a 10.6 per cent increase in child poverty.

“Children in lone-parent families in Nova Scotia have the highest risk of poverty,” the report reads. “In 2023, 48.7 per cent of children in lone-parent families lived in poverty, which is four times the rate of children who live in couple families (11.4 per cent).”

The report noted major drivers of poverty continue to be low wages, inadequate income supports and unaffordable housing.

The report recommends the provincial government implement a plan to end child poverty by 2031. It also calls for increases to family income, transformations to the child welfare system and enhancements to access to universal public services.

“The minimum wage is critical,” said Christine Saulnier, director of the Nova Scotia centre. “We need to see increases there. The gap to the living wage is huge. If you are living less than the living wage, you are needing the stars to align.”

“We know what works. The question is whether this government is prepared to invest at the scale required,” said Dr. Lesley Frank, Acadia University Sociology professor and co-author of the report. “As the Legislature opens, children and families deserve more than incremental change.

“The upcoming budget is the clearest opportunity to demonstrate whether reducing child poverty is truly a priority.”

With files from CTV News Atlantic’s Natalie Lombard and Emma Convey

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