The 1%, Census Metropolitan Areas, and our Official Languages
Inspiration for seeking out evidence-based answers to questions can come from almost anywhere. Today I saw a statement written as part of an argument on the wall of a bathroom stall. It was something to this effect:
"Why Occupy? Learn French! Join us 1%ers in Ottawa and stick it to Canada's dumb anglos."
This is referring to the Occupy Movement, whose slogan was "We are the 99%" in reference to the inequality of wealth in the United States, and all over the world. This led me to some questions: Who are the 1% in Canada? Is Ottawa really the richest city? Is the 1% clustered somewhere geographically? Where does language and bilingualism factor into all this?
To address these questions, I hit the data. First I'll mention an interesting blog entry from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives' behindthenumbers.ca. Using tax information from 2009, they indicate that, in terms of income levels, the 1% in Canada would include anyone with an income above $366,717 (Lee, 2011). There is more discussion of income and wealth inequality in Canada and the U.S., but no significant reference to the geographic aspects or to language.
Next I turned to the Daily. This article shows that Ottawa-Gatineau did in fact have the highest median total family income in Canada in 2009, followed by Calgary and Edmonton. So people generally have higher incomes in Ottawa than other CMAs, but this tells us nothing about the 1%.
To get a closer look, I went into the Census Public Use Microdata Files (PUMFs) to do my own analysis. Here I found that the 1% income figure was lower. According to the PUMF, the 1% includes people with incomes above around $195,000. With a little Excel manipulation, I found that about 1.2% of Ottawa residents would qualify. This is high compared to places like Regina (0.57%) or Winnipeg (0.75%), but not as high a concentration as in places like Toronto (1.5%), or Calgary (2.2%).
Running a similar analysis, this time against knowledge of official languages, I found that bilingual individuals make up a greater proportion of the 1% than they do the Canadian population in general. So it seems being bilingual does increase the likelihood someone would be a "1%er", as stated on the bathroom wall. Incidentally, speaking only French had the opposite effect, and as we might expect, speaking neither official language almost completely guarantees you are not part of this group.
So, whoever it was that chose to share their view of this issue on the bathroom wall may have been a little misguided. While becoming bilingual could potentially increase your likelihood of being in the 1%, the data show benefits are far greater for French speakers to learn English than the reverse. Also, moving to Ottawa might increase your income, but if your goal is to join the 1%, you might be better to consider moving to Calgary.
References
Statistics Canada. (2011) "Family Income and individuals income, related variables: Sub-provincial data." The Daily. June 28. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/110628/dq110628b-eng.htm
Lee, Marc (2011). "Wealth and income in the top 1%." Behind the Numbers. http://www.behindthenumbers.ca/2011/10/20/wealth-and-income-in-the-top-1/













