Financial concern a key reason Canadians are having fewer kids: poll

The rising cost of living appears to be dragging down Canada’s birth rate, which recently hit its lowest level in recorded history.

Ipsos polling done exclusively for Global News found most Canadians are having fewer children than they would like because it’s too expensive to raise them.

The poll looked at responses from 1,001 Canadians between Feb. 16 and Feb. 20 on Canada’s falling fertility rate. Nearly half of respondents said they consider two the “ideal number of kids.”

But 65 per cent say they’re choosing to have smaller families because of financial concerns.

“Canadians’ anxieties are higher than we’ve measured since the 1980s,” said Ipsos vice-president of public affairs Sean Simpson. “It is no doubt having an impact on people’s attitudes and whether or not they feel that they can afford to have children.”

Sarah Brauner-Otto, director of McGill University’s Centre on Population Dynamics, said in an interview Wednesday that the data “seems like a big sign that something isn’t right.”

“There’s something about the way life is happening here in Canada that means people aren’t able to have the number of kids that they want to have.”

Last month, Statistics Canada revealed the country’s fertility rate dipped to its lowest point since it began collecting data more than a century ago.

The agency released its most recent numbers, showing the birth rate fell to 1.33 children per woman in 2022, well below the replacement level of around 2.1.

A report from the agency released last November estimates it costs almost $300,000 to raise a child from birth to 17 years old.

Brauner-Otto says parents have always worried about the cost of raising children, but the 2020s have brought more fear about the future.

“What has changed is the amount