For the first time ever, there are now more people in Canada age 65 and over than there are under age 14, according to figures released this morning.
Statistics Canada said Tuesday that Canada's population sat at 35,851,800 at the start of July, a figure that has increased by 308,100 or 0.9% in the past year. That's the smallest annual increase in 17 years, but still the largest pace of growth seen in any G7 nation.
Much of growth came in the form of immigration, as newcomers made up 60.8% of the population growth. The rest was natural population growth, as people already in Canada had children.
Canada met a milestone that demographers have seen coming for a long time. In the year ended in July, the population of people 65 and older is now larger than the number of children under 14.
StatsCan reported there were 5,780,900 Canadians 65 and older on July 1. That compares to an under-14 population of 5,749,400. In percentage terms, 16.1% of Canadians were in the 65-and-over group in July, with under-14s accounting for just 16% of the population.
The cohort of people 65 and up isn't just large in absolute terms, but their ranks are growing faster than the rest of us, too. The population growth rate for the over-64 set increased by 3.5% during the year, four times faster than the population at large.
That pace of growth has increased every year since 2011, the data agency said.
But by international standards, Canada's population of 65-and-overs is still relatively small, and lower than any other G7 nation. In Japan, for example, 26% of the population is over age 64.
Provincially, New Brunswick had the highest proportion of over-64s, at 19% of the province's total population. Conversely, the lowest proportion in Canada was in Nunavut, at 3.7%. Of the provinces, Alberta had the lowest proportion at 11.6%.
Across all age groups, four provinces are making up a bigger and bigger share of Canada's total population. In July, 86.3% of people in Canada lived in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta.
Ontario remained Canada's most populous province, with 13,792,100 people, Statistics Canada said.
