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South Cariboo income reflects senior population

Lower income and less saving than other areas
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Statistics Canada graph

Recently released data from the 2016 Census, shows median household income in 100 Mile House and the surrounding areas was well below the Canadian national average in 2015.

According to Statistics Canada, in 2015 the median total income of households in Canada was $70,336 while in 100 Mile House it was $43,136. In Cariboo G (103 Mile to north of Lac la Hache and the Highway 97 corridor from 100 Mile to Green Lake) it was $59,904; in Cariboo H (Forest Grove, Canim Lake and Mahood), it was $49,088; and in Cariboo L (Lone Butte, North Green Lake, Watch Lake and Interlakes) it was $53,803. The average household income in the Cariboo Regional District (CRD) as a whole was $63,638.

That’s not totally out of whack and about what you’d expect given that the South Cariboo has such a high senior’s population, says Marleen Morris, Co-Director at the Community Development Institute at the University of Northern British Columbia.

“People might say ‘well then I guess our seniors in our community might not be as well off and our community might not be as well off as other communities.’ But here’s the nuance to that: usually by the time people are seniors, you’ve paid off your house, you’ve paid off all of your major expenses, you’ve sent your kids to college or university. You’re through with all of those expenses. So all of that money becomes disposable income.”

All of those expenses eat up a lot of your income and many South Cariboo residents won’t have as much of that, says Morris.

The data also shows that in 2015, 495 persons or 27.7 per cent of the persons in 100 Mile House lived with low income. Low-income rates in the surrounding areas were lower than 100 Mile House but still higher than the Canadian and B.C. average (at 14.2 and 15.5 per cent respectively) with Cariboo G at 17.4 per cent, Cariboo H at 23.9 per cent and Cariboo L at 18.3 per cent. In the CRD the low-income rate was 16.8 per cent.

In all four areas, when it comes to couples’ income, the man was the higher income earner (defined as earning more than 60 per cent of the couple’s income) the majority of the time (55.7 to 59.3 per cent), with partners having a fairly equal income for 23.6 to 29.9 per cent of couples and the woman having a higher income for 13.3 to 17.9 per of couples.

This was somewhat on par with Canada, where among couples 50.7 per cent of the time the man had the higher income, 32 per cent of the time income was fairly equal and for 17.3 per cent of couples, the woman had the higher income.

“You’ve got such a high seniors population. When you think about the income in a senior household of that generation, it’s more likely that the man will have a work pension plus the Canada Pension Plan … Not a lot of the women would have big pensions and so that would be exactly what you would expect in that scenario.”

In 100 Mile House, significantly fewer households (47.8 per cent) contributed to Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs), Registered Pension Plans (RPPs) or Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs) than in B.C. or Canada as a whole (64.2 per cent and 65.2 per cent respectively). In Cariboo G 52.4 per cent contributed, in Cariboo H 46.3 per cent contributed and in Cariboo 51.1 per cent contributed.

The lower percentage of saving activity can also be attributed to the high seniors’ population to some extent, says Morris.

“They’re not saving, they’re using their RRSPs. That wouldn’t be out of the ordinary.”

For comparison, the average household income in other areas of the Cariboo economic district (CRD and the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George, RDFFG) was higher than the South Cariboo area with, the average household in the RDFFG at $77,676 and Williams Lake (including the city and some outlying areas) at $72,328.

While the incomes in these areas are higher, these areas don’t have the same kind of senior population and a lot more people paying off debt, says Morris.

Other communities where the proportion of seniors are increasing may see similar trends going forward to the South Cariboo, says Morris.

“Here are the three things about the pattern that will hold; that there will be less savings in communities as the population gets older; that the income will be reduced because [of] the population as it gets older. As the seniors increase, the income will go down, absolutely, and the pattern that usually people who are in their senior years have paid off all of their major debt.”

The exact numbers may be different though, she says.

See 100 Mile House data.

See Cariboo G data.

See Cariboo H data.

See Cariboo L data.