This book is unlike any other. Poverty in Canada provides a unique, interdisciplinary perspective on poverty and its importance to the health and quality of life of Canadians. This volume considers a range of issues that will be of great interest to a variety of audiences – those studying or working in Community and Developmental Psychology, Education, Health Promotion, Health Studies and Health Sciences, Medicine and Nursing, Political Science and Policy Studies, Public Health, Social Work, and Sociology, as well as the general public.

Central issues include: the definitions of poverty and means of measuring it in wealthy, industrialized nations such as Canada; the causes of poverty – both situational and societal; the health and social implications of poverty for individuals, communities, and society as a whole; and the means of reducing its incidence and responding to its effects. Particular emphasis has been placed on the lived experiences of poverty throughout the book.

This second edition has been thoroughly updated and features a new chapter on anti-poverty programs, updated data on poverty rates and information on newly developed Canadian measures of deprivation, and an extended discussion of what Canadians can do to first reduce – and then eliminate – poverty in Canada.