Between 1980 and 2005, median-income Canadian families saw an 11.1 per cent increase in the amount of money they earned, according to new data from Statistics Canada.

The increase is calculated based on gross income and was attributed to strong growth in the economy and gains in employment, according to a report on StatsCan's Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics.

The data shows that the median income for families, when calculated after taxes, has also gone up in more recent years.

Median income in 2006, after taxes, was $58,300 -- an increase of 2.1 per cent from the previous year.

It was the third year in a row that the median has gone up, and was attributed to gains in market income and government transfers.

Other family types also saw gains in their median, after-tax income from 2005.

• Senior families (as defined as families in which the primary income earner is 65 or older): $42,400, up 2.9 per cent
• Working-aged families: $62,000, up 1.8 per cent
•  Unattached individuals: $22,800, up 4.6 per cent

When the numbers were broken down by province, the median after-tax income for families in Alberta was far ahead of families in the rest of the country. It was the third consecutive year that rate has increased.

• Alberta families had a median income of $70,500 in 2006.
• Ontario families followed at $62,400, then British Columbia at $60,300.

The data shows that government transfers played a key role in some of the more significant changes.

Two-parent families with kids saw an increase of $2,800 in government transfers in 2005, to $3,300 in 2006, due largely to changes to the Universal Child Care Benefit.

And for single individuals, transfers went from $500 to $600.

"According to the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics, an estimated $78.2 billion was transferred to families in 2006, up 5.9 per cent from 2005. An estimated $25.3 billion was distributed to people living alone, up 2.8 per cent," the report states.

But government transfers to senior families -- which make up the largest portion of family types -- remained unchanged at $22,600.

The percentage of Canadian families living below the low-income cutoff remained unchanged at seven per cent, or 633,000 families.

On average, those families were $7,000 below the low-income cutoff. One year earlier in 2005, the average was $8,000.

About 2.3 per cent of senior families were below the low-income cutoff. About 29 per cent of single Canadians lived below the low-income threshold.