MEASURES OF INCOME INEQUALITY AND SOCIAL POLARIZATION IN CANADIAN METROPOLITAN-AREAS

Rising inequality and polarization oi employment earnings have been cl early documented in Canada and most other developed economies in the 1 990s. Following a critical discussion oi the use oi the Gini coefficie nt as a measure oi inequality in geography, the level of inequality an d social polarization oi household incomes at the census tract level i s assessed for Canada's 22 largest Census Metropolitan Areas. The dist ribution of house-hold income among metropolitan census tracts is gene rally becoming more unequal. in addition, the proportion of households in middle-income census tracts is declining in most metropolitan cent res, lending further support to arguments that Canada's middle class i s in decline.