Household income in Burnaby is behind most of its neighbours, according to statistics released by StatsCan last week.
Between the 2006 and 2016 censuses, Burnaby’s median total annual income of households went from $59,414 to $64,737, a jump of nine per cent. That increase ranked below Vancouver (16.8 per cent) and New Westminster (12.1), but ahead of Coquitlam (6.1), Port Moody (5.3) and Richmond (3.1).
But in actual money made, Burnaby still trails all but New West ($64,695) and the Royal City has almost caught up. In the District of North Vancouver the median income is $103,981, well ahead of Port Moody ($92,922), Surrey ($77,494), Coquitlam ($74,383), Vancouver ($65,327) and Richmond ($65,241).
The number of households in Burnaby did increase by 18.2 per cent from 78,035 to 92,200. That was lower growth than many of the city’s neighbours such as Port Moody (28.1), Coquitlam (24.4), New Westminster (20.9) and Richmond (19.6), but higher than Vancouver (12.0).
The percentage of Burnaby households earning $150,000 or more was 13.3, which is below that of Greater Vancouver (16.7), British Columbia (14.4) and Canada (14.7).
In 2015, there were 47,315 Burnaby residents, 20.6 per cent, classified as low income compared to 20.2 per cent in 2005. The low income rate for residents under 18 years of age was 22.4 per cent, 20.2 per cent for those 18 to 64, and 20.3 per cent for 65 and older.
The rate of residents in one-parent families was 31.1 per cent while those in couple families without children was 14 per cent.
The percentage of Burnaby households contributing to Registered Retirement Savings Plans or Tax-free Savings Accounts was 66.3 per cent in 2015. That was higher than the provincial (64.2 per cent) and national rates (65.2).
The median total income of couples in Burnaby in 2015 was $77,139, more than 10 grand below the national median of $87,688. The median income for the higher income partner was $52,753 and $20,070 for the lower earner.
In 47.7 per cent of Burnaby couples, a man had the higher income, 32.5 per cent couples had fairly equal incomes and in 19.8 per cent of cases it was a woman. Burnaby’s percentage for a man having the higher income (47.7) are similar to New Westminster (47.9), Richmond (45.8) and Vancouver (45.1). The situation, however, is quite different in Port Moody (52.0) and Coquitlam (51.2).
