OTTAWA, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Some 3.2 million Canadians, or 8.7 percent of the population, lived below Canada's Official Poverty Line in 2018, down from 9.5 percent in 2017, according to Statistics Canada on Monday.

For children under 18 years of age, the poverty rate was 8.2 percent in 2018, little changed from 2017 but continuing a general downward trend since the most recent peak of 15 percent in 2012. In 2018, about 566,000 children lived below the poverty line in Canada, compared with one million in 2012.

Children in lone-parent families remain more vulnerable to poverty. In 2018, the child poverty rate was 5.8 percent for those living in couple families, compared with 26.2 percent for those in female lone-parent families.

About 216,000 persons aged 65 years and older, or 3.5 percent of the senior population, lived in poverty in 2018, little changed from 2017. The poverty rate was 1.7 percent for seniors living in families and 7.9 percent for unattached seniors.