Addressing Financial Anxiety Starts with Stronger Communities
New national research puts numbers to something Maritimers have been feeling for years, and its message is simple: financial stress is leaving many people feeling overwhelmed, with impacts on their health, relationships, and sense of security.
Maybe it's the pause before you open the banking app, the running total you keep in your head at the grocery store, or deciding which bill has to wait until next month.
If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. This spring, United Way Centraide Canada worked with Léger to measure not just what things cost, but how those costs are impacting people. The numbers, when compared to last year, see the trend moving in the wrong direction. Sixty percent of Canadians surveyed now agree that “thinking about my personal finances makes me feel anxious,” up from 55 per cent last September. [1]
The new report shows that financial anxiety is more widespread in Atlantic Canada, with nine out of ten respondents feeling some level of financial anxiety, the highest of any region in Canada. [1]
What Rising Costs Really Mean
Financial anxiety is often framed as something to manage with a budgeting app, a spending tracker, or better financial habits. But for many Maritime households, the stress runs deeper. It's the weight of rising costs, shrinking flexibility, and the constant pressure of trying to make the numbers work. Prices across Canada climbed about 20 percent in five years, [3] and paycheques haven’t kept up. Across the Maritimes, the typical household had less income in 2024, after inflation, than it did in 2020. [4]
Since 2020, the cost of the average two-bedroom home in Maritime cities has climbed by roughly half, while pay rose about a fifth. [5] The survey asked what households were giving up to stay afloat, and the answers tell you exactly where the pressure sits.
Families have watched the cost of living climb faster than their income. They're choosing between family vacations and home repairs, where in previous years, they'd have found a way to do both.
Ben
United Way Maritimes staff member
What it's Costing Us
The effects of financial stress reach beyond household budgets. They can be felt in lost sleep, growing worry, and the pressure that builds when every dollar matters. For some, that stress can create a sense of isolation, making it harder to reach out for support when it's needed most.
For me, financial stress is looking like less time with friends. The vast majority of my friends have had to leave Fredericton, and we can't afford the gas/bus fare needed to see each other in person often enough, if at all.
Jennifer M.
United Way Maritimes staff member
It lands hardest on the people already carrying the most: single parents, newcomers, people living with disabilities, and young Maritimers starting out.
Parents worry their kids will be left out because they can’t afford the sports, the travel, the latest games and tech.
Nicole
United Way Maritimes staff member
Creating the conditions for stability and opportunity is where that pressure starts to lift, and helping people find it is work United Way Maritimes supports every day. When Tanya came to United Way through a funded education program, she was carrying multiple challenges at once: housing instability, separation from her daughter, and the lasting effects of an unsafe relationship. Through one-on-one coaching, she passed her first exams and was connected to a free family-violence support. Today, she is working toward her diploma and a career in care work. When her transcript arrived, her coach saw a transformation, and, for the first time in a long time, Tanya felt proud, capable, and confident for what comes next. [8]
Building Strong Communities
Seven United Ways across the Maritimes became one in July 2024 because these problems don’t stop at county lines. Our purpose is to inspire action to end poverty, and our 2026–2031 strategic plan puts that purpose to work in three ways: [6]
We are making investments that will strengthen communities for generations. Our five-year strategy focuses on sustainable growth, measurable outcomes, and long-term community resilience.
Bring People Together to create change - complex challenges require collective action. We convene governments, businesses, nonprofits, donors and community leaders to create solutions no organization can achieve alone.
Addressing the Root Causes of Poverty - we are focused on long-term solutions that help people more from crisis to stability and opportunity. Our work prioritizes housing, social infrastructure, access to services, community connections, and stronger nonprofit capacity.
A Home is More than Housing
"Housing is foundational to stability, wellbeing, and opportunity. That's why United Way Maritimes is investing in housing solutions that help people build stronger futures and create lasting change."
For people exiting homelessness, that means supportive communities like the Sackville Tiny Home Community in Nova Scotia and the Sunnyside Community in Saint John: places where affordable housing and wraparound supports come together. With rent set to roughly 30 per cent of a resident’s income, they can count on stability instead of uncertainty. It’s a model that creates the foundation for lasting change, and our goal is to create 500 homes in complete communities across the Maritimes by 2031. [6][10]
As homeownership becomes increasingly out of reach in Canada, we’re helping create a path back to stability. At The Groves at Hillsdale in Amherst, United Way Maritimes covers the down payment that so often stands between working individuals or families find a home of their own. It means a family with a moderate income can start building equity and putting down roots. When a home is sold, United Way’s contribution is returned and used to help the next family buy in. [7]
I am 40 years old with a university education, and I work full time for the provincial government. Even with all these positive variables the idea of homeownership was so far out of my grasp, it felt impossible. After much consideration it was clear to me that applying to this program would be the life raft I was praying for. To own my own home is one of the biggest accomplishments of my life. I am thankful for the United Way, can’t wait to meet my soon to be new neighbors and see this new community grow.
New homeowner
The Groves at Hillsdale
That is what a donation does here: it starts something, drawing government and private investment along with it. Housing is most families’ biggest cost. When housing becomes more affordable, many of the pressures people face begin to ease.
Accessing Resources
Community support continues to make a meaningful difference [2], and people are using these services and supports for the very first time.
If after reading this you find yourself looking for support, information, or are unsure where to start, connecting with the United Way Maritimes funded 2-1-1 service is a great first step. Available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 2-1-1 is free, confidential, and offered in more than 240 languages. A real person will help connect you with services in your community including food supports, housing assistance, help with heating costs, mental health services, education programs, employment resources, and more.
You can dial or text 2-1-1, or explore available services online at ns.211.ca, nb.211.ca or pe.211.ca. United Way Maritimes helps ensure 2-1-1 is available across Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and on Prince Edward Island, our United Way team delivers the service directly. You don’t need to be in a crisis to reach out. 2-1-1 is there for anyone looking for information, guidance, or support.
Nine out of ten of us are feeling it. All of us can do something about it.
Because we’re stronger together.
Sources
[1] UWCC Financial Anxiety Index: Canada report (Léger, 2026) — unitedway.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/EN-UWCC-Financial-Anxiety-Index-Report-CANADA.pdf. 91% Atlantic share (national 89%); national trend 60% (2026) vs 55% (Sept 2025 comparison survey).
[2] UWCC Financial Anxiety Index: Atlantic regional report (Léger, Feb 17–Mar 11 2026, n=1,000, MoE ±3.1%). Cost-cutting shares (leisure 38 / savings 28 / clothing 22 / food 14 / housing 3); 40% of housing-assistance users asking for the first time; 77% found the help useful.
[3] Statistics Canada, CPI table 18-10-0005 and The Daily (Jan 2026): prices “rising 19.9% over the past five years.”
[4] Statistics Canada, Canadian Income Survey table 11-10-0190 (2024 constant dollars): NS median after-tax income $66,300 (2020) → $64,200 (2024), −3.2% real. Note pandemic-benefit caveat for 2020–22.
[5] CMHC table 2.2.11, average two-bedroom rent 2020 → Oct 2025: Saint John +56%, Moncton +53%, Halifax +46%. StatCan SEPH table 14-10-0204: average weekly earnings 2020–2025 ≈ +20% (NS/NB/PEI).
[6] United Way Maritimes, Strategic Plan 2026–2031 (Board approved): merger July 2024; purpose “To inspire action to end poverty”; 500 homes, $100M invested, 1,000 leaders trained by 2031 (targets).
[7] The Groves at Hillsdale shared-equity model (plain-language summary, internal): UWM 25% deferred share, no interest/rent, repayable on sale; appreciation capped at NS CPI to 4%/yr.
[8] United Way Maritimes, “Tanya’s Story,” Stories of Impact — unitedwaymaritimes.ca/stories-of-impact/tanyas-story/.
[9] United Way Maritimes website: unitedwaymaritimes.ca/our-impact (“$12 Million+ — Invest in communities”; 165 programs; 122,288+ individuals) and homepage By the Numbers 2025 (2,400 families emergency housing support; 340,000 meals; 120,000+ people supported).
[10] United Way Maritimes, Housing Projects — unitedwaymaritimes.ca/our-impact/housing-projects/: “supportive communities with wraparound supports for those exiting homelessness”; Sackville residents “selected from the Halifax By-Name List”; Sunnyside “up to 70 high-quality, deeply affordable modular home units, with wrap around supports.” Groves page: purchase “with no down payment and reasonable mortgage payment” on a moderate income ($50,000–$80,000, Cumberland County).
[11] Statistics Canada, Census 2021, “To buy or to rent” (The Daily, Sept 21, 2022): homeownership rate “66.5% in 2021 … after peaking in 2011 (69.0%)”; ages 25–29: 36.5% (2021) vs 44.1% (2011).
