Cost of living in Toronto for low-income households

The City of Toronto monitors food affordability every year using the Ontario Nutritious Food Basket (ONFB) costing tool. Food prices, among other essential needs, have increased considerably in the last several years. People receiving social assistance and earning low wages often do not have enough money to cover the cost of basic expenses, including food. As such, ONFB data is best used to assess the cost of living in Toronto by analyzing food affordability in relation to income, alongside other local basic expenses.

The dataset describes the affordability of food and other basic expenses relative to income for 13 household scenarios.

• Scenarios were selected to reflect household characteristics that increase the risk of being food insecure, including reliance on social assistance as the main source of income, single-parent households, and rental housing. A median income scenario has also been included as a comparator.
• Income, including federal and provincial tax benefits, and the cost of four basic living expenses - rent food, childcare, and transportation - are estimated for each scenario.
• Results show the estimated amount of money remaining at the end of the month for each household.

Three versions of the scenarios were created to describe:

• Income scenarios with subsidies: Subsidies can substantially reduce a households’ monthly expenses. Local subsidies for rent (Rent-Geared-to-Income), childcare (Childcare Fee Subsidy), and transit (Fair Pass) are accounted for in this file.
• Income scenarios without subsidies + average market rent: In this file, rental costs are based on average market rent, as measured by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).
• Income scenarios without subsidies + current market rent: Rental costs are based on current market rent (as of October 2023), as measured by the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB).

All values are rounded to the nearest dollar.

Datasets available for download

• 2024 Income Scenarios - with Toronto Regional...XLSX
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• 2024 Income Scenario - with Toronto Regional...XLSX
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• 2024 Income Scenarios - with Rent Geared to...XLSX
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• 2024 Income Scenario - with Rent Geared to...XLSX
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• 2024 Income Scenarios - with Canada Mortgage...XLSX
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• 2024 Income Scenario - with Canada Mortgage...XLSX
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• Housing Potential

Additional Info

• Maturity Level 1 (69%)
• Maturity Level 2 (92%)
• Maturity Level 3 (22%)
• Maturity Level 4 (70%)
• Maturity Level 5 (100%)
• Maturity Level 6 (25%)

Field	Value
Last Updated	April 14, 2026, 00:28 (UTC)
Created	December 17, 2025, 18:40 (UTC)
Domain / Topic Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.
Title Title for the Dataset.	Cost of living in Toronto for low-income households
Description A description of the dataset.	The City of Toronto monitors food affordability every year using the Ontario Nutritious Food Basket (ONFB) costing tool. Food prices, among other essential needs, have increased considerably in the last several years. People receiving social assistance and earning low wages often do not have enough money to cover the cost of basic expenses, including food. As such, ONFB data is best used to assess the cost of living in Toronto by analyzing food affordability in relation to income, alongside other local basic expenses. The dataset describes the affordability of food and other basic expenses relative to income for 13 household scenarios. Scenarios were selected to reflect household characteristics that increase the risk of being food insecure, including reliance on social assistance as the main source of income, single-parent households, and rental housing. A median income scenario has also been included as a comparator. Income, including federal and provincial tax benefits, and the cost of four basic living expenses - rent food, childcare, and transportation - are estimated for each scenario. Results show the estimated amount of money remaining at the end of the month for each household. Three versions of the scenarios were created to describe: Income scenarios with subsidies: Subsidies can substantially reduce a households’ monthly expenses. Local subsidies for rent (Rent-Geared-to-Income), childcare (Childcare Fee Subsidy), and transit (Fair Pass) are accounted for in this file. Income scenarios without subsidies + average market rent: In this file, rental costs are based on average market rent, as measured by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). Income scenarios without subsidies + current market rent: Rental costs are based on current market rent (as of October 2023), as measured by the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB). All values are rounded to the nearest dollar.
Tags / Keywords Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.	Housing Potential
Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc) File format of the dataset.
Dataset Size Dataset size in megabytes.
Metadata Identifier Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
Published Date Published date of the dataset.	2022-11-10
Time Period Data Span (start date) Start date of the data in the dataset.
Time Period Data Span (end date) End date of time data in the dataset.
GeoSpatial Area Data Span A spatial region or named place the dataset covers.

Field	Value
Access category Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).
License License used to access the dataset.	License not specified
Limits on use Limits on use of data.
Location Location of the dataset.	https://open.toronto.ca/dataset/cost-of-living-in-toronto-for-low-income-households
Data Service Data service for accessing a dataset.
Owner Owner of the dataset.	Social Development, Finance & Administration, Poverty Reduction Strategy Office, [email protected]
Contact Point Who to contact regarding access?
Contact Point Email The email to contact regarding access?
Publisher Publisher of the dataset.
Publisher Email Email of the publisher.	[email protected]
Author Author of the dataset.	[email protected]
Author Email Email of the author.	[email protected]
Accessed At Date the data and metadata was accessed.

Field	Value
Identifier Unique identifier for the dataset.
Language Language(s) of the dataset
Link to dataset description A URL to an external document describing the dataset.
Persistent Identifier Data is identified by a persistent identifier.	N/A
Globally Unique Identifier Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.	N/A
Contains data about individuals Does the data hold data about individuals?	N/A
Contains data about identifiable individuals Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?	N/A
Contains Indigenous Data Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?	N/A
Portal Type Platform type of the source portal.

Field	Value
Version Version of the datatset
Source Source of the dataset.	https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/accountability-operations-customer-service/long-term-vision-plans-and-strategies/poverty-reduction-strategy/food-security-in-toronto-poverty-reduction-strategy/
Version notes Version notes about the dataset.
Is version of another dataset Link to dataset that it is a version of.
Other versions Link to datasets that are versions of it.
Provenance Text Provenance Text of the data.
Provenance URL Provenance URL of the data.
Temporal resolution Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
GeoSpatial resolution in meters Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
GeoSpatial resolution (in regions) Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.

Field	Value
Indigenous Community Permission Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
Community Permission Community permission (who gave permission).
The Indigenous communities the dataset is about Indigenous communities from which data is derived.

Field	Value
Number of data rows If tabular dataset, total number of rows.
Number of data columns If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.
Number of data cells If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.
Number of data relations If RDF dataset, total number of triples.
Number of entities If RDF dataset, total number of entities.
Number of data properties If RDF dataset, total number of unique properties used by the triples.
Data quality Describes the quality of the data in the dataset.
Metric for data quality A metric used to measure the quality of the data, such as missing values or invalid formats.

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