Legal aid clients

Legal aid plans provide services to clients to help them with their legal problems in the areas of criminal, family, child protection, civil non-family (e.g., landlord and tenant disputes, poverty law), and immigration and refugee law. Data in this section show the gender and age of legal aid clients who received summary service and full legal representation in 2022-23 by type of matter. Data on immigration and refugee matters are excluded from this section because many legal aid plans only collect data for the principal claimant (i.e., head of family), so gender–based data may not reflect the total amount of individuals being served.

Most legal aid clients were male, and accessed criminal legal aid services

In 2022-23, of the over 404,000 legal aid clients, 61% percent were male, while 38% were female, with the remaining category of “other” representing gender diverse people, and unknown responses. The most common age category of legal aid clients was 18-34 (40%) (Table 12). These proportions have remained consistent over the past five years. Figure 14 shows the gender and age breakdown of legal aid clients for all types of matters combined, with males aged 18-34 making up the highest proportion of clients (25%), followed by males aged 35-49 (21%) and females aged 18-34 (15%).

Figure 14. Males aged 18-34 made up the highest proportion of legal aid clients overall.

Figure 14. Males aged 18-34 made up the highest proportion of legal aid clients overall.
Figure 14. Males aged 18-34 made up the highest proportion of legal aid clients overall. – Text version

There is a population pyramid bar chart that shows age and gender distribution of legal aid clients in Canada during 2022-2023. There are four different age categories with bars representing male and females seeking legal aid.

The first category is for people aged 0-17. The dark purple bar on the left-hand side (male) shows that 7% of males seeking legal aid were males aged 0-17. The light purple bar on the right-hand side (female) shows that 5% of females seeking legal aid were females aged 0-17.

The second category is for people aged 18-34. The dark purple bar on the left-hand side (male) shows that 25% of males seeking legal aid were males aged 18-34 which is the highest proportion of legal aid clients for all types of matters. The light purple bar on the right-hand side (female) shows that 15% of females seeking legal aid were in this age category.

The third category is for people aged 35-49. The dark purple bar on the left side (male) shows 21% of males seeking legal aid were males aged 35-49. The light purple bar on the right shows 13% of females seeking legal aid were females aged 35-49

The fourth category is for people aged 50+. The dark purple bar on the left shows that 10% of males seeking legal aid were males aged 50+, and the light purple bar on the right shows 5% of females seeking legal aid were in this age category.

Figure 15 shows the age and gender breakdown of criminal legal aid clients. For criminal matters, young males made up a significant proportion, with males aged 18-34 (34%) representing the largest group followed by males 35-49 (27%).

Figure 15. Males aged 18-34 made up the highest proportion of criminal legal aid clients.

Figure 15. Males aged 18-34 made up the highest proportion of criminal legal aid clients.
Figure 15. Males aged 18-34 made up the highest proportion of criminal legal aid clients. – Text version

There is a population pyramid bar chart that shows age and gender distribution of criminal legal aid clients in Canada during 2022-2023. There are four different age categories with bars representing male and females seeking legal aid.

The first category is for people aged 0-17. The dark purple bar on the left-hand side (male) shows that 5% of males seeking legal aid were males aged 0-17. The light purple bar on the right-hand side (female) shows that 2% of females seeking legal aid were females aged 0-17.

The second category is for people aged 18-34. The dark purple bar on the left-hand side (male) shows that 34% of males seeking legal aid were males aged 18-34. The light purple bar on the right-hand side (female) shows that 11% of females seeking legal aid were in this age category.

The third category is for people aged 35-49. The dark purple bar on the left side (male) shows 27% of males seeking legal aid were males aged 35-49. The light purple bar on the right shows 8% of females seeking legal aid were females aged 35-49

The fourth category is for people aged 50+. The light purple bar on the left shows that 11% of males seeking legal aid were males aged 50+, and the medium purple bar on the right shows 2% of females seeking legal aid were in this age category.

Figure 16 shows the gender and age breakdown of civil legal aid clients. For civil matters, females made up the highest proportion of clients, with those aged 18-34 (22%) and 35-49 (20%) making up almost of half of these clients.

Figure 16. Females aged 18-49 made up almost half of civil legal aid clients.

Figure 16. Females aged 18-49 made up almost half of civil legal aid clients.
Figure 16. Females aged 18-49 made up almost half of civil legal aid clients. – Text version

There is a population pyramid bar chart that shows age and gender distribution of civil legal aid clients in Canada during 2022-2023. There are four different age categories with bars representing male and females seeking legal aid.

The first category is for people aged 0-17. The dark purple bar on the left-hand side (male) shows that 11% of males seeking legal aid were males aged 0-17. The light purple bar on the right-hand side (female) shows that 12% of females seeking legal aid were females aged 0-17.

The second category is for people aged 18-34. The dark purple bar on the left-hand side (male) shows that 8% of males seeking legal aid were males aged 18-34. The light purple bar on the right-hand side (female) shows that 22% of females seeking legal aid were in this age category.

The third category is for people aged 35-49. The dark purple bar on the left side (male) shows 10% of males seeking legal aid were males aged 35-49. The light purple bar on the right shows 20% of females seeking legal aid were females aged 35-49.

The fourth category is for people aged 50+. The dark purple bar on the left shows that 8% of males seeking legal aid were males aged 50+, and the light purple bar on the right shows 9% of females seeking legal aid were in this age category.

Indigenous clients

Just under 6 in 10 Indigenous legal aid clients were males accessing criminal legal aid services

Legal aid plans from Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and Yukon provided data on self-identified Indigenous legal aid clients. Out of the 47,088Footnote 15 Indigenous clients that self-identified in these provinces and territory in 2022-23, 77% accessed criminal legal aid (adult and youth), while 22% accessed civil legal aid (table 13). This is significantly higher than the proportion of all of legal aid clients, where 56%Footnote 16 of clients accessed criminal legal aid.

Overall, just under two thirds (63%) of Indigenous legal aid clients were male, a proportion slightly higher than the general population of clients where 61% were male. Males represented 74% of Indigenous adult and youth criminal legal aid clients, but only 31% of Indigenous civil legal aid clients (Figure 17).

Figure 17. Indigenous males made up three quarters of Indigenous criminal legal aid clients, while Indigenous females made up more than two-thirds of Indigenous civil legal aid clients.

Figure 17. Indigenous males made up three quarters of Indigenous criminal legal aid clients, while Indigenous females made up more than two-thirds of Indigenous civil legal aid clients.
Figure 17. Indigenous males made up three quarters of Indigenous criminal legal aid clients, while Indigenous females made up more than two-thirds of Indigenous civil legal aid clients. – Text version

This graph displays a stacked bar chart with three horizontal bars. The legend says that data for men are shown in dark purple; data for women are in light purple.

The top bar indicates that 63% of all indigenous legal aid clients were male. The left portion of the bar in dark purple indicates 29,876 males, and the right portion of the bar in light purple indicates 15,894 females.

The second bar indicates 74% of indigenous criminal legal aid clients were male. The left portion of the bar in dark purple indicates 26,737 were male, and the right portion of the bar in light purple indicates 9,071 were women.

The third and final bar states that 67% of indigenous civil legal aid clients were female. The left portion of the bar in dark purple indicates there are 3,139 males, and the right portion of the bar in light purple indicates 6,823 females.