The 2022 report provides child and family poverty rates for Nova Scotia, based on 2020 data. Nova Scotia’s child poverty rate in 2020 decreased by 24.3%. This is the most significant single-year reduction on record (between 2019 and 2020). 31,370 children were living in low-income families in Nova Scotia. Government benefits reduced child poverty by 55.9%, lifting 26,810 children aged 0-17 out of poverty in NS, without those transfers, the child poverty rate would have been 41.4%.
Without the temporary pandemic benefits (including the CERB), the child poverty rate in Nova Scotia would have increased. Nova Scotians received 99% of temporary benefits from the federal government (only 0.3% from the provincial government).
This report also offers 17 recommendations for government to eradicate poverty.