Personal Consumption Rates for Canada: Update of 2000 PCRs Using 2007–08 Surveys of Household Spending Data

Abstract

Abstract This article seeks to update the Canadian personal consumption rates (“PCRs”) that were derived and published in 2004 from Statistics Canada's 2000 Survey of Household Spending (SHS) by family size and family income level, variables that have long been understood as influencing the decedent's personal consumption in fatality cases. In this article, data from the Survey of Household Spending are used, but combined from Statistics Canada's 2007 and 2008 years, which enlarged the sample size of observations by almost 50% compared to the 2000 data. The PCRs from the 2007–08 samples confirm the 2000 PCRs. The 2007–08 PCRs are summarized in Appendix A; graphs depicting expenditure as a percentage of Canadian household before-tax income are shown in Appendix B for various expenditure categories; and regression results from the 2007 and 2008 SHS datasets are summarized in Appendix C.