2025 BC Child Report Card

November 26, 2025

The 2025 BC Child Poverty Report Card shows a province where far too many children continue to face economic hardship. In 2023, British Columbia’s child poverty rate remained at 16.7%, representing 149,370 children and youth living in families with incomes below the low-income threshold. Although the rate appears unchanged from the previous year, this stability is misleading. Behind it is a rise of 1,800 more children experiencing poverty, illustrating how even minor percentage shifts translate into thousands of young lives affected.

The report highlights a deeper and more urgent concern: families are not just living in poverty, they are being pushed further below the poverty line. In 2023, Two-parent families with two children who were living in low income fell $15,674 below the poverty line, an increase from 2022. Lone-parent families faced an even harsher reality, falling $17,109 below the line, more than $1,000 deeper into poverty in just one year.

This widening gap reflects growing financial strain at a time of mounting cost pressures across the province. The Report Card underscores that child poverty in B.C. is not simply persistent, it is becoming more severe, leaving families with fewer resources, less stability, less ability to stay afloat.