STATISTICS CANADA released the results of the latest Canadian census in a new report THE CANADIAN POPULATION IN 2011: AGE AND SEX with the following highlights:
- The number of seniors aged 65 and over increased 14.1% between 2006 and 2011 to nearly 5 million. This rate of growth was higher than that of children aged 14 and under (0.5%) and people aged 15 to 64 (5.7%).
- Seniors accounted for a record high of 14.8% of the population in Canada in 2011, up from 13.7% five years earlier.
- In 2011, the proportion of seniors in Canada was among the lowest of the G8 countries.
- The population of children aged 4 and under increased 11.0% between 2006 and 2011. This was the highest growth rate for this age group since the 1956 to 1961 period during the baby boom.
- In 2011, there were 5,825 centenarians in Canada, up 25.7% since 2006. This was the second most rapidly growing age group among all age groups after those aged 60 to 64.
- In 2011, the working-age population (those aged 15 to 64) represented 68.5% of the Canadian population. This proportion was higher than in any other G8 country, except Russia.
- Among the working-age population, 42.4% were in the age group 45 to 64, a record high proportion. Almost all people aged 45 to 64 in 2011 were baby boomers.
- In 2011, census data showed for the first time that there were more people aged 55 to 64, typically the age group where people leave the labour force, than aged 15 to 24, typically the age group where people enter it.
- In 2011, the proportion of seniors was the highest in the Atlantic provinces, Quebec and British Columbia.
- For the first time in 50 years, the number of children aged 4 and under increased between 2006 and 2011 in all provinces and territories.
- In 2011, all census metropolitan areas located west of Ontario had a proportion of people aged 65 and over below the national average of 14.8%, except for Kelowna and Victoria in British Columbia.
- Nearly 1 in 5 people were aged 65 and over in Peterborough and Trois-Rivières; in Calgary, this proportion was lower than 1 in 10 people.
- Most census metropolitan areas with proportions of seniors lower than the Canadian average (such as Calgary, Halifax and St. John’s) also had higher-than-average proportions of people aged between 15 and 64.
- Among census agglomerations, Parksville, on Vancouver Island in British Columbia and Elliot Lake, in Ontario, had the highest proportion of seniors, at twice the national average of 14.8%.
- In 2011, 5 of the 10 census agglomerations that registered the highest proportions of people aged 15 to 64 were in Alberta.
- Seven of the 10 municipalities with the highest proportion of seniors were in British Columbia.