A comparison of patterns of urban deprivation between Canadian and U.S. cities

Recent research has indicated the existence of aggregate level differences between Canadian and U.S. cities. However, little attention has been given to possible socio-spatial differences between cities in the two nations. This paper attempts to address part of this issue by comparing a sample of paired Canadian and U.S. cities with respect to, (1) deprivation concentration levels within their inner cities, (2) the nature of areas of multiple deprivation, and (3) the proportion of their worst areas of multiple deprivation located within their inner cities. The study found that deprived groups were disproportionately represented in the inner-city areas of both nations. However, areas of multiple deprivation in U.S. cities contained more deprived groups than Canadian cities. Finally, the inner-city areas of both nations contained high proportions of their worst areas of multiple deprivation. In short, the extent of multiple deprivation is less in Canadian cities, but cities in both countries share an inner-city problem.