This map shows the percentage of households with shelter cost higher than reported pre-tax income. Also see the corresponding map based on 2011 data and the one based on 2006 data

Overall in Canada 2.3% of households had income lower than running shelter costs, down from 4.5% in 2011 and from 3.6% in 2006. Direct comparisons between the long form and 2011 NHS can be difficult because of the different methods, on the Country level this change is probably outside of the range that can solely explained by NHS non-return bias.

Among the provinces BC stands out with a rate of 3.6% and within BC Metro Vancouver has the highest rate with 5.1%.

Within Metro Vancouver, UBC/UEL take the lead with almost 26.1% of households having income lower than running shelter costs, followed by West Vancouver with 11.5%. Richmond, Vancouver, and Burnaby lead the larger municipalities with rates of 8.3%, 6.3% and 6.2%, respectively.

This map is best viewed at or above the Census Tract level. We grey out areas where we detect the possibility of statistical rounding that could skew the results. With this in mind, it can be useful to drill down further into Vancouver to better understand the origin. We see that UBC/UEL's high rate is particularly high in areas dominated by student housing. It is striking that this phenomenon is also quite visible in parts of the more affluent West Side and areas like Coal Harbour.

There are several reasons why households may have lower income than running shelter costs. For example students often have no or very little income that gets reported on tax returns, but receive financial support from parents. A household maintainer may be between jobs and living on savings for a while (retirement income would show up on a tax return and count toward income.

Other large Canadian cities like Calgary, Toronto and Montreal have rates at 2.4%, 4.5% and 3.0%.

Areas close to universities tend to have higher rates, as can be seen for example Ottawa, Waterloo, or Toronto.