Seniors outnumber children for first time
17.2% of residents 65 or older; 16.7% are 14 or younger
Seniors are outnumbering children for the first time in the history of the Canadian census — and that includes here in Windsor.
According to the 2016 Census — the results of which Statistics Canada began releasing on Wednesday — 17.2 per cent of Windsor’s population consists of people ages 65 or older, while 16.7 per cent are people ages 14 or younger.
That’s slightly above the national average on both ends: seniors make up 16.9 per cent of the total Canadian population, while children make up 16.6 per cent.
In terms of sheer numbers, the census puts Windsor at 56,765 seniors versus 50,005 kids.
“What that represents is a demographic transition,” said Frazier Fathers, manager of community impact and learning for United Way Centraide Windsor-Essex County.
“We’ve known for a while that the baby boomers are retiring. In the next censuses, we’ll see increasing numbers in the senior population .... And our community is aging a little faster than the rest of the country.”
Fathers pointed out that this transition has the potential to affect all aspects of the community — from transportation to daily activities to the programs offered by organizations like the United Way.
Among other surveyed cities, Calgary had the lowest proportion of seniors, at just 11 per cent.
Meanwhile, the community with the lowest proportion of children was Victoria, with only 13.1 per cent of the population being younger than 15.
Categorization of population by sex was also part of Wednesday’s release from Statistics Canada.
The 2016 census shows there are 161,305 males in the Windsor area compared to 167,840 females.
Limiting those people to the age range of 15 to 64 puts the numbers at 107,605 males versus 109,775 females — a ratio of 98 men per 100 women.
The ratio gets more dramatic when it comes to people ages 65 and older: There are 25,550 male seniors in Windsor compared to 31,210 female seniors — or 81.8 men per 100 women.
Females have historically outnumbered males in Canada. The trend began in the mid-1970s and has steadily become more prevalent. The current national ratio is 96.5 men per 100 women.
Finally, household and dwelling characteristics were also explored in the accumulated data.
According to the 2016 census, there are 91,635 occupied private dwellings in Windsor — 159,055 if we include Essex County.
Of those dwellings in WindsorEssex, 69.8 per cent — 111,145 residences — are in the category of single-detached houses.
That’s a significantly higher than the national average. The census says 53.6 per cent of Canada’s 14.1 million private dwellings are single-detached homes.
“As the population ages, we have to start thinking about if our seniors can stay in their homes,” Fathers said. “Are they able to maintain these homes?”
Fathers noted construction of single-detached houses in Windsor-Essex continues unabated, while apartment or condominium construction has slowed.