Percentage of seniors in Kelowna area on rise, latest census numbers show

Kelowna in a census snapshot: noticeably more seniors and a few fewer kids.

The grey wave is rising in greater Kelowna, with 21.4 per cent of the region’s approximately 195,000 residents aged 65 or over.

That compares to 19.2 per cent of the population that was made up of seniors five years ago.

In the greater Kelowna area, meanwhile, 14.2 per cent of the population is aged 14 or under. That’s down from 14.6 per cent in 2011.

Increasing numbers of seniors, of course, have to do with the advancing age of baby boomers. Given its popularity as a retirement destination, Kelowna has long had a percentage of seniors a few points above the national average.

The downward trend in the percentage of young Kelowna residents runs counter to a nationwide rise in the number of younger people. Across the country, the number of children 14 and under rose by 4.1 per cent.

The 2016 census marked the first time that Canadian seniors have outnumbered children, 5.9 million to 5.8 million.

Fifty-two per cent of Kelowna residents live in single-detached family homes. That’s a lower percentage than in cities like Calgary and Edmonton, where it’s 58 per cent and 57 per cent, respectively, but munch higher than in Vancouver, at 29 per cent.

In Kelowna, 21 per cent of the population lives in apartment buildings of five storeys or less, nine per cent live in duplexes or other types of apartments, and two per cent live in highrises.

Across the Central Okanagan, from Lake Country to Peachland, there were 100,125 female residents last year and 94,755 men.

There were about 4,000 more women than men in Kelowna, but only 20 more women than men in Lake Country (6,470 to 6,450).