Canadian seniors outnumber kids for the first time
OTTAWA — Canadians over 65 now outnumber those under 15 for the first time, according to census data released by Statistics Canada on Wednesday.
However, one expert said the focus should not be solely on aging baby boomers, but people over 85, a group that has grown almost 20 per cent in five years.
“This is a population that we haven’t paid a tremendous amount of attention to,” said Colin Busby, associate research director for the Toronto-based nonprofit C.D. Howe Institute. “I’m talking about those 85 and up, or those 100 and up.”
The census counted 770,780 Canadians aged 85 or older in 2016. This group grew almost four times as fast as the population as a whole between 2011 and 2016. There were 8,230 people at least 100 years old, a group that grew 41 per cent compared with five years earlier. “We’re likely to continue to see that kind of expansion,” Busby said.
As populations age, health problems related to aging, including dementia, will grow. Higher proportions of people over 85 also live alone, most of them women.
Busby said it struck him there are almost twice as many women as men among those over 85. Many of those would have cared for a spouse until the spouse’s death, but now have to rely on their children or government support if they want to stay in their homes. That includes help with even just basic tasks such as buying groceries, cooking and doing laundry, Busby said.
“The demographic issues in that group are acute, they’re ongoing,” Busby said. “We still don’t have very good solutions to helping out people in those age groups maintain their autonomy and maintain their ability to live in their homes as long as they would like. It points to some obvious weaknesses in how we have designed our health-care policies and social-policy systems.”
Health Minister Jane Philpott said the population growth among older Canadians is “something to be celebrated.
“Aging is a good thing, and the fact that we’re all living longer is very good news for Canadians, reflects the fact that we have an increasingly healthy population and it’s great that people are living longer,” she said. “It does, of course, raise concerns as it relates to the sustainability of our health-care system, but there is no reason for panic.”
Philpott said the government has policies to help, including investments in housing and home care. Ottawa is spending $6 billion over the next decade to provide the provinces with new funding for home-care programs.
The previous Conservative government, in 2012, proposed a plan to increase the pension eligibility age to 67 from 65, with a phased-in increase starting in 2023. In 2016, the new Liberal government scrapped that plan.