Young Canadians Living in Cities Can't Afford To & A Study Says We're Losing $750 A Month
The most affordable city in the country still leaves young people in the red. 😞
A group of young people relaxing in a park. Right: High-rises in Downtown Vancouver.
Turns out that being a young person in Canada is actually incredibly financially difficult.
A new study has found that nearly every single city in Canada is unaffordable for young people. So much so, that on average, young people living in Canada run a deficit of $750 a month.
The study, which was conducted by RBC and the youth research organization Youthful Cities, looked at the average financial life of Canadians aged 15 to 29.
Calculated by taking the average income and subtracting the average cost of living, it concluded that the city with the largest average deficit for young people is Halifax, Nova Scotia – with an average monthly deficit of -$1,290.74.
The most affordable city in the report was Lethbridge, Alberta, which had an average monthly deficit of -$34.92.
No matter what Canadian city you live in, from big ones like Toronto and Vancouver to smaller ones like Laval and Regina, you are probably going to end up in the red every month.
Often we refer to affordability as including the bare minimum in costs to survive, but what if we included what is means to thrive\u2026\n\nWe measured how affordable cities across Canada are for young people. Dig into the results here: https://ow.ly/kt9U50J6jgb\u00a0pic.twitter.com/RFyHSNZOw3— Youthful Cities (@Youthful Cities) 1652363103
In case you still had some hope, there's more bad news.
Not only are young people losing money on average every month just living in the city, but even working full time doesn't cover all the bills in two-thirds of Canadian cities.
Also, for young people working part-time, a deficit of around -$1,300 is the starting point. It's even worse in Yellowknife where the figure is -$2,912 a month!
Based on the findings, the report said that to make life more affordable for the younger generation of Canadians, "we have to act now to systemically support young people."
It also suggested that upping the amount of available full-time jobs, raising the minimum wage and lowering the cost of education could start to push the average monthly take-home into the black.
Good luck out there, millennials and Gen Z!