Canada’s Population Younger Than What We Thought
Lina Ko December 11th, 2007
Stats Canada has just released the latest on Canada’s ageing population. Yes, while our population continues to age, Canada is still one of the youngest of the world’s developed nations, according to these new preliminary estimates.
As of July 1, 2007, the population’s median age was estimated at 39 years. In 2002, it was 37.6 years. Nationally, 13.4 per cent of Canada’s population comprised seniors aged 65 and over, up from 12.7 per cent in 2002. At the other end of the age scale, the proportion of children aged 14 and under fell from 18.6 per cent to 17 per cent during this five-year period.
Even so, according to Stats Canada, our country is one of the youngest of the 30 developed countries that are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Canada’s proportion of seniors ranks in 22nd place, and it is still far behind Japan, which has the OECD’s oldest population. One-fifth of Japan’s population is aged 65 and over.
As of July 1, 2007, Canada had an estimated 4.4 million seniors, over 100,000 more than on July 1, 2006. However, between July 1, 2007 and July 1, 2008, nearly 300,000 people will turn 65 in Canada, the highest annual level on record. This number should increase for another 20 years, when people born during the peak of the baby-boom generation reach retirement age. At that time, more than half a million people will turn 65 each year. Regionally, Canada’s population is older east of Ontario whereas Alberta had the lowest media age among the provinces as well as the lowest proportion of seniors.
It will be interesting to see how the impact of the leading-edge boomers will be felt across the country in the next five years.
