Canadian food insecurity climbs to 24% as cost-of-living pressures persist

A new 2026 poverty report card has been released by Food Banks Canada (FBC) showing a 24% food insecurity rate — the highest the country has seen in decades, says one expert.The expert, none other than the Food Professor, or Sylvain Charlebois, who runs an agri-food lab at Dalhousie University, expressed the severity of this statistic on X — "Nearly one in four Canadians is struggling to put food on the table."The number has steadily risen from 19% in 2023 to 24% in 2026.These numbers are indicators something is awry — as Charlebois puts it, "Yet we're still debating whether we're in a recession."."For many households, that debate is already over."Though many are feeling the pressure, surprisingly 39% of Canadians say they feel they are worse off than they were last year, a decrease from 43% in 2023, and 44% in 2024.This however, seems to be more about perceived hardship and potentially an indication of what Canadians are used to, as the FBC states, affordability levels "remain high."Of those spending more than 30% of their income on housing 42% of people said this was the case — up from 36% in 2023. .Canadians also had increased trouble getting access to healthcare this year with 24% claiming to have this issue — another jump from 19% in 2023.The poverty rate stayed steady at its 2024 level of 11%, but another stark jump from its 2023 baseline of 7.4%.When comparing provinces, Quebec had the lowest poverty rate in the country at 7%, with Nunavut with the highest rate 31.7%. Most know the current unemployment rate in the country is 6.7% up from 5% in 2023.Overall the lowest unemployment rate was in Saskatchewan at 5% and the highest was in Newfoundland and Labrador at 9.5%..FBC says there is a clear pattern across the country: "Too many people have incomes that do not meet the cost of living." They claim, in many cases, a job is no longer enough to meet the high cost of living.They say one in five food bank clients is employed.Additionally they cite the fact there are nearly three unemployed workers for every one job vacancy. .According to the Agri-food Lab, Canadians spent 24% of their income on groceries, ranking 10th among G20 countries in this regard."Despite being a high-income country and a major food producer, food affordability remains a challenge for many Canadian households," wrote Charlebois.

Canadian food insecurity climbs to 24% as cost-of-living pressures persist

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