Term: Income Quintiles / Income Quintile

Glossary Definition

Last Updated: 2013-10-04

Definition:

A grouping of the population by average household income. Income quintiles are first divided into two population categories: urban (Winnipeg and Brandon) and rural (all other Manitoba areas), and then into five groups (quintiles) within each population category, with approximately 20% of the population in each group. The groups are ordered from lowest to highest income. As a result of this process, the income range within each quintile may not be equal across quintiles. Income quintiles are often used as a proxy measure of socio-economic status.

The quintiles are based on dissemination area (DA)-level average household income values from public-use census files. Each person within a DA is "attributed" the average household income of the DA, so this is an area-level income measure, not an individual level income measure.

Individuals whose postal code does not link with a DA, whose DA has a suppressed average household income, who live in DA where 90% or more of the population is institutionalized (e.g., PCH, prison), or whose address is attributed to the Public Trustee Office or Child and Family Services (CFS) cannot not be assigned to an income quintile. These are classified and referred to as "Income Not Found" or "Income Unknown".

For the most recent, more detailed information about income quintiles, please see the Income Quintiles - Child Health Income Quintiles concept.

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