Canada's working-age population is older than it has ever been, according to new census figures released Wednesday.
More than one in five working adults is now nearing retirement, says Statistics Canada — a demographic shift that will create significant challenges for the Canadian workforce in the coming decade.
Laurent Martel, director for the of demography at Statistics Canada, called it a "date with demographic destiny."
"Canada is at a very special place right now," she said. "There are very large implications of it is certainly one factor explaining the current shortages that Canada is experiencing."
The Canadian population now has a larger share of people aged 55 to 64 than it does of those aged 15 to 24, the age at which people enter the workforce.
In 1966, there were 200 people aged 15 to 24 for every 100 Canadians aged 55 to 64, but that has now been flipped on its head. In 2021, there were only 81 people 15 to 24 for every 100 Canadians in the 55 to 64 age group.
"There are challenges associated with an older workforce, including knowledge transfer, retaining experienced employees and workforce renewal," the agency said in its report.
The 2021 census says that while declining fertility rates and increased life expectancy are important factors, the single most significant driver of Canada's aging population trend is the ongoing retirement of baby boomers (Canadians born between 1946 and 1965), which began in 2011.
Despite this news, Statistics Canada says Canada still has one of the youngest working-age populations in the G7 after the U.S. and the United Kingdom, with 15- to 64-year-olds making up 64.8 per cent of the population; in Japan, that demographic makes up less than 60 per cent of the population.
An aging population
It's not just Canada's workforce that is aging significantly — it's the population as a whole, Statistics Canada said.
From 2016 to 2021, the number of Canadians age 65 and older rose 18.3 per cent to seven million — the second-largest increase in 75 years, after the increase recorded from 2011 to 2016, which was a rise of more than 20 per cent.
The seven million Canadians 65 and older make up 19 per cent of the population, up from 16.9 per cent at the time of the last census.
A closer look shows that the number of Canadians aged 85 and older rose almost 12 per cent from the time of the last census, while Canadians aged over 100 rose by more than 15 per cent.
"Over the next 30 years, the number of persons aged 85 and older could triple from 861,000 to 2.7 million," the agency said.
The young and elderly in Canada
The age of Canada's population is not just about the growing cohort of seniors. It's also the declining growth rate among younger Canadians as the country's fertility rate hit of 1.4 children per woman, Statistics Canada said
Between 2016 and 2021, the number of Canadians younger than 15 grew six times slower than the number of people 65 and older. The number of children under the age of 15 at the time of the 2021 census stood at six million, compared to seven million Canadians 65 and older.
Statistics Canada says that if current trends continue, by 2051 that gap will widen to 4.6 million, with 12 million Canadians over the age of 65 and only 7.4 million children under
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