In 2023, 22.9% of people in the ten provinces lived in a food-insecure household. That amounts to 8.7 million people, including 2.1 million children, living in households that struggled to afford the food they need. With another year of rising food insecurity, the percentage of people affected is at a new record high.

Today, Statistics Canada released data from the 2022 Canadian Income Survey (CIS 2022). While the CIS 2022 provides information on income and poverty using 2022 tax files, hence its name, questions about food insecurity were asked in the following year, from January to June 2023. Since food insecurity status is determined by the report of food deprivation in the past 12 months, we think it is more appropriate to characterize the food insecurity statistics as representative of 2023.