Food insecurity in Canada, by province: the 2026 breakdown

Food insecurity — not having reliable access to enough affordable, nutritious food — has reached the highest level ever recorded in Canada. In 2025, almost one in four people in the ten provinces lived in a food-insecure household, and nearly one in three children did. The crisis is national, but it is not evenly spread: the gap between the best-off and worst-off jurisdictions is enormous. This post lays out the full provincial and territorial picture for both households and children, using the most recent data from Statistics Canada's Canadian Income Survey as analysed by PROOF, the University of Toronto research team that monitors food insecurity in Canada.

The national picture

In 2025, 22.9 percent of people in the ten provinces — roughly 8.7 million Canadians — lived in a household that experienced some level of food insecurity in the previous year. That is the highest rate PROOF has recorded since national monitoring began, and it continues a steep climb that started when grocery inflation took off in 2021. Just five years earlier, the rate sat closer to 13 percent.

Most of that hardship is not mild. The majority of food-insecure households fall into the moderate or severe categories, meaning the quality or quantity of food they ate was compromised, or family members skipped meals or went whole days without eating because there was not enough money for food. Severe food insecurity — the most extreme tier — has risen especially fast.

Children are hit harder than the population as a whole. In 2025, 30.8 percent of children under 18 in the ten provinces — about 2.4 million kids — lived in a food-insecure household. Families with children consistently post higher rates than households without children, because a fixed income has to stretch across more people and more competing costs.

The provincial breakdown

Here is how the provinces and territories ranked on overall household food insecurity in 2025, from highest to lowest:

• Nunavut — 56.4% (highest in Canada, more than double any province)

• Alberta — 28.4%

• New Brunswick — 28.2%

• Manitoba — 27.9%

• Saskatchewan — 27.4%

• Nova Scotia — 26.1%

• Newfoundland and Labrador — 25.4%

• Prince Edward Island — 24.9%

• Ontario — 23.0% (close to the national average)

• British Columbia — 21.4%

• Northwest Territories — 16.4%

• Yukon — 15.5%

• Quebec — 18.0% (lowest among the provinces)

Where it is worst

Nunavut is in a category of its own. More than half of all households — and roughly two in three children — are food-insecure, driven by extreme grocery prices in fly-in communities, limited local food production, low incomes relative to costs, and the legacy of colonial disruption to traditional food systems. No province comes close.

Among the provinces, the Prairies and Atlantic Canada carry the heaviest burden. Alberta posted the highest provincial rate in 2025 at 28.4 percent and also had the highest rate of severe food insecurity — a striking result for a province with relatively strong average incomes, and a reminder that food insecurity is about the gap between what households earn and what they must spend, not just headline wages. New Brunswick, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia all sit close behind. For children specifically, New Brunswick led the provinces in 2025 at 38.1 percent.

Where it is lowest

Quebec is the consistent low outlier among the provinces, at 18.0 percent overall in 2025 and the lowest rate of severe food insecurity. Researchers generally attribute Quebec's advantage to a stronger social safety net — including subsidized childcare and more generous family benefits — and a competitive discount grocery market that keeps food prices lower than much of the country. British Columbia and Ontario sit nearer the middle, while the Yukon and Northwest Territories post lower rates than the provincial worst, though still well above where any region should be.

Which families are hit hardest

Food insecurity is not spread evenly within provinces. Some household types are dramatically more exposed:

• Lone-parent families led by women — nearly half (47.4 percent) were food-insecure in 2025

• Black Canadians — 41.3 percent, the highest rate of any group reported

• Indigenous Peoples living off-reserve — 34.7 percent, and almost certainly higher for on-reserve and remote Northern communities, who are underrepresented in the national survey

• Families with children — 29.4 percent, well above the all-household average

• Households relying on social assistance as their main income source — among the highest rates of any group

The single-mother figure is the one to sit with: in a family headed by a woman on her own, the odds of food insecurity are close to a coin flip. When one income has to cover housing, childcare and food, food is the line item with the most give — and so it is the one that gets cut.

What is driving it

Record food insecurity is the collision of several cost increases hitting low- and middle-income families at once:

1. Housing costs that swallow 40 to 60 percent of income for many lower-income households, leaving little for food

2. Grocery inflation that has compounded year after year since 2021

3. Wages and benefits that have not kept pace with the combined rise in housing, food and transport costs

4. The expiry of pandemic-era income supports that had temporarily reduced poverty

5. Higher interest rates that raised debt-carrying costs for households with mortgages or variable debt

What you can do

• Donate to your local food bank — monetary donations stretch much further than canned goods because food banks buy at wholesale prices

• Support school food and breakfast programs in your community

• Advocate for income-based solutions: the research is clear that food insecurity is solved by money, not just food charity

• If your household is struggling: food banks, school programs and community meals exist for you, and there is no shame in using them

The takeaway

Almost one in four Canadians — and nearly one in three children — now live in a household that cannot reliably afford food, the highest level on record. The geography is consistent: Nunavut and the territories sit at the extreme, the Prairies and Atlantic Canada carry the heaviest provincial burden, and Quebec carries the lightest, while single-mother, Black and Indigenous families are exposed everywhere. The numbers describe a problem of household income meeting the cost of housing and food — and they are a reminder that grocery affordability is not an abstraction. For millions of Canadians, including 2.4 million kids, it is dinner.