Calgarians are living in Canada’s youngest city
Baby boom, lowest percentage of seniors drives down average age
Calgary’s status as the nation’s youngest city has been nurtured by a mini baby boom.
A Statistics Canada census for 2016 shows the country is aging and that for the first time, seniors — who comprise 17 per cent of the population — outnumber those aged 14 and under.
But among the provinces, Alberta has the lowest proportion of seniors, with about 12.5 per cent of the population 65 or older.
And Calgary is the youngest among the country’s census metropolitan areas, with just 11 per cent of the population made up of senior citizens.
The average age has been nudged down by a climbing number of births at city hospitals and midwifery clinics.
In 2015-16, there were 18,984 live births at city acute-care hospitals, up from 18,841 the year before and 17,614 in 2012-13.
Calgary midwives contacted by Postmedia said they are facing a growing demand.
“There’s definitely a longer waiting list for midwives, we’re busy,” said Shireen Mathew, administrator for Red Community Midwives. “There’s a baby boom, definitely.”
All the midwife clinics say they’re constrained by a provincial funding cap on their profession.
“A lot of women don’t get chosen because there aren’t a lot of midwives,” said Mathew.
Last year’s Calgary census showed the city’s modest population increase of 4,256 grew largely on the increase in births.
That baby boom is a reflection of a younger Alberta population fed by economic migration, said Mark Parsons, assistant deputy minister of economics with Alberta Treasury.
“We’ve had a large influx of people from other parts of Canada who tend to be younger and of child-bearing age,” he said.
An outflow of some of that demographic due to the recent economic downturn has been more than made up by foreign immigration.
“Immigrants tend to be significantly younger than the overall population,” said Parsons.
Years of economic expansion have left a remarkable imprint on Alberta’s age profile, said Jennifer Hansen, manager of demographics for Alberta Treasury.
“Alberta seems to buck the trend — there’s more millennials than there are baby boomers on the Prairies, and that’s strongly driven by Alberta,” said Hansen. “There’s 210,000 more millennials than baby boomers in Alberta.”
Alberta also has the highest growth rate in the 0 to 4 age group, she noted.
“People have been moving to Alberta and having their kids here,” she said.
According to the federal census, the largest five-year grouping in the Calgary economic region are those aged 30 to 34, while those in the 0 to 24 category comprised 31 per cent of the population.
Those numbers are good news in coaxing businesses to move to Calgary, said Court Ellingson, vicepresident of research with Calgary
Alberta seems to buck the trend — there’s more millennials than there are baby boomers on the Prairies.
Economic Development.
“It’s not new, but it’s good it’s still there,” he said.
“It’s a selling point — many of the organizations we’re trying to attract see a youthful city as an attractive city,” he said.
That’s particularly true when trying to lure tech firms such as those feted by the city recently in California’s Silicon Valley, he said.
And that youthful influx was so great during the economic good times that it has staying power despite the recent recession, said Ellingson.
“We were so far ahead that even after two years of downturn, our numbers still look amazing, there’s an incredible base,” he said.
A large number of younger families has meant nearly two per cent annual enrolment growth at city public schools, said CBE superintendent of facilities Dany Breton.
“It’s really exciting to have 20 new or modernized schools open this year after 20 years of student growth and minimal construction,” said Breton.