By Canadian Press and rdnewsNOW

what the data shows

New 2021 census data highlights aging population, plus the gender-diverse community for first time

Apr 27, 2022 | 10:15 AM

The 2021 census reveals the number of people over the age of 85 has more than doubled since 2001 and is expected to keep accelerating.

By 2050, the 85-and-older population could reach more than 2.7-million people — prompting questions about who will care for them and where they will live.

As it is, wait-lists for long-term care beds can stretch on for years, leaving people stuck in hospitals or families struggling to care for their loved ones at home.

Those issues are especially pronounced in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, where seniors over 85 could make up more than six per cent of the population by 2043.

“They haven’t started hitting these critical ages that are usually associated with needing care and support,” said Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald, director of financial security research at the National Institute on Ageing at Toronto Metropolitan University.

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“But it’s really something that’s now very clearly on the horizon. It’s going to affect the country in terms of the way the medical resources are distributed. It’s going to certainly require more of our tax budget to be allocated towards caring for seniors. But I think most of all, it’s going to affect everyone personally,

As for the 65-and-older crowd, they made up 19.0 per cent of Canada’s population from 2016 to 2021, but just 14.8 per cent in Alberta. In both jurisdictions, those numbers rose more than two per cent over that time.

Older Canadians are a growing economic and politically influential group, says StatsCan. They are staying healthier, active, and involved for longer.

Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta are the only provinces in the country where children under the age of 15 still outnumber persons aged 65 and older.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM STATISTICS CANADA ON AGING – READ MORE HERE

• Working-age population (persons aged 15 to 64) has never been older. More than 1 in 5 persons (21.8%) in this population is close to retirement, that is, aged 55 to 64. This proportion represents an all-time high.
• Population aged 15 to 64 still represents a larger share of total population (64.8%) than in other G7 countries, particularly Japan (less than 60%).
• From 2016 to 2021, the number of persons aged 65 and older rose 18.3% to 7.0 million. This is the second largest increase in 75 years, after the increase observed from 2011 to 2016 (+20.0%).
• From 2016 to 2021, the number of children under the age of 15 grew at a pace six times slower than the number of people aged 65 and older, to total 6.0 million.
• These demographic shifts are due to low fertility (the total fertility rate at fewer than two children per woman for nearly 50 years), the gradual increase in life expectancy, and the fact that the large baby boom generation (born between 1946 and 1965) started turning 65 in 2011.
• Immigration has a rejuvenating effect on the Canadian population, but this effect is not enough to stop the population aging process.
• While aging, Canada still has one of the youngest populations among the G7 countries, after the United States and the United Kingdom.
• The COVID-19 pandemic slowed population growth in all age groups. However, it has not had a significant impact on population aging.

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Meantime, newly released census data shows 0.33 per cent of Canadians aged 15 or older — or about 100,815 people — identify as transgender or non-binary.

The new information from Statistics Canada gives an unprecedented snapshot into Canada’s transgender and non-binary population, which some advocates say is long overdue.

Canada is the first country to collect and publish data on gender diversity from a national census.

Last year’s national household survey included a revamped section on gender, differentiating for the first time between the sex a person was assigned at birth and their gender.

Gemma Hickey, a transmasculine non-binary author and activist, says it’s “about time” the census acknowledged people who exist outside the gender binary.

“As an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights for over 20 years, I’ve been a part of and witnessed many changes. But these types of changes, especially when it comes to the census, are long overdue,” they said.

“That visibility — that recognition — is very important for people, because we are here. We have been here as long as you’ve been here.”

Hickey became one of the first Canadians to receive a gender-neutral birth certificate in 2017.

They hope the census will spark a broader conversation by acknowledging that the sex a person was assigned at birth is not necessarily the same as gender.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM STATISTICS CANADA ON GENDER DIVERSITY – READ MORE HERE

• The 2021 Census of Population included for the first time a question on gender and the precision of “at birth” on the sex question, allowing all cisgender, transgender and non-binary individuals to report their gender.
• Of the nearly 30.5 million people in Canada aged 15 and older living in a private household in May 2021, 100,815 were transgender (59,460) or non-binary (41,355).
• The proportions of transgender and non-binary people were three to seven times higher for Generation Z (born between 1997-2006, 0.79%) and millennials (1981-1996, 0.51%) than for Generation X (1966-1980, 0.19%), baby boomers (1946-1965, 0.15%) and the Interwar and Greatest Generations (born in 1945 or earlier, 0.12%).
• In May 2021, the Canadian population aged 15+ had an average age of 48.0 years. In comparison, the transgender population had an average age of 39.4 years, while the non-binary population had an average age of 30.4 years.
• Just under 1-in-100 young adults aged 20 to 24 were non-binary or transgender (0.85%).
• Just over half of non-binary people aged 15 and older (52.7%) lived in one of Canada’s six largest urban centres: Toronto (15.3%), Montréal (11.0%), Vancouver (10.8%), Ottawa–Gatineau (5.6%), Edmonton (5.4%) and Calgary (4.5%).
• Nearly 1 in 6 non-binary people aged 15 and older (15.5%) lived in the downtown core of a large urban centre. This share was more than twice that of transgender people (7.0%) and over three times higher than that of cisgender people (4.7%).
• Over time, acceptance and understanding of gender and sexual diversity has evolved, and there’s been social and legislative recognition of transgender, non-binary and LGBTQ2+ people in general — meaning… younger generations may be more comfortable reporting their gender identity than older generations.

Statistics Canada’s next scheduled census release is July 13, when it will reveal numbers related to income profiles, military experience, and ultimately paint a portrait of Canadian families and households.

(with files from Canadian Press)