After being one of the largest and most influential demographic groups for decades, baby boomers (56-75) now make up less than 25% of Canada’s population, while millennials (25-40) are experiencing the strongest growth in the country, the 2021 census tells us.
According to Statistics Canada’s work on data from the last census, baby boomers, who represented 41.7% of Canada’s population in 1966, now represent only 24.9% of the population, or the equivalent of 9,212,640 individuals who were all born in between 1946 and 1965.
The demographic weight of baby boomers dropped 3.1% between 2016 and 2021.
This is the first time in 56 years that the demographic weight of baby boomers has fallen below 25%, mainly because of the higher mortality rate associated with their age group, but also because they exceed age when immigrants come in large numbers to the country. .
Therefore, immigration is no longer an important factor in the growth of this generation.taught Statistics Canada.
An aging Canadian
High life expectancy and low fertility rates in Canada mean the Canadian population is aging. From 2016 to 2021, the proportion of people aged 65 and over increased by 18.3% to reach seven million people.
” The number of people aged 65 and over grew six times faster than children aged 0 to 14. “
Although Canada welcomes many immigrants, their arrival in the country is not enough to reverse this serious trend, show the latest demographic data.
In 2021, there will be more than 861,000 people aged 85 and over in the country, twice as many as in the 2001 census.
In general, it is in the western provinces and territories where the population is the youngest in Canada, while in the Atlantic the oldest is. In fact, it was in Newfoundland and Labrador that the proportion aged 65 and over rose the fastest (+4.2 percentage points).
In Quebec, people aged 65 and over represent 20.6% of the population, or more than 1 in 5 people.
Rapid growth of millennials
While baby boomers are slowly giving way to the younger generation, those known as millennials or generation Y are seeing the fastest increase in their weight in the nation’s demographic.
Born between 1981 and 1996, millennials (Y) saw 8.6% growth in their age group between 2016 and 2021 compared to 5.2% for the general population in the same period.
It is important to immigration that we owe this growth to the demographic weight of millennials, explains Statistics Canada, which points out that more than half of immigrants accepted into the country between 2016 and 2021 will be millennials, i.e., people between the ages of 25 and 40.
There will be 7,926,575 millennials in Canada in 2021, or 33.2% of the working -age population.
Highly urbanized, in 2021 they represent 35.1% of the population of the city centers of large urban agglomerations in the country.
From one generation to another
Generation X, which includes people aged 41 to 55, who numbered 7,069,355 at the last census, grew by 2.3% between 2016 and 2021.
The Z group, aged 9 to 24, increased 6.4% over the same period. This is the second highest population growth observed in all generations, Statistics Canada reports.
Generation Alpha, ages 8 or younger, numbered 3,194,415 in 2021. This is the only generation that benefits from fertility to increase its populationnote the statistics.
Among the oldest, the grand generation (94 years and older) as well as the inter-war generation (76 to 93 years), see their demographic weight gradually declining over the years due to their aging. , but also because immigration is no longer. constitutes a growth factor for them.
The very good generation, which numbered 135,560 people in 2021, shows a 67.2% decrease in its demographic weight compared to 2016, while the interwar generation, with 2,716,910 individuals, has dropped 20. 8% over time.
A changing society
These generational changes will certainly have an impact on Canadian society, say Statistics Canada researchers, especially on aging baby boomers who will redefine the concept of retirement and the end of life compared to other generations.
The fact that they had fewer children than their parents, that they stayed longer in the labor market and that they were likely to live longer than their parents will certainly have an impact on capitalization of retirement funds, labor shortages, health care and social. services they will need more in the coming years.
Their desire for autonomy and their numbers are likely to also have a major impact on the development of home care. The oldest of them will be 85 in 2031.
In contrast, the Z’s and millennials, considered that more educated and varied than previous generations incorporating population change in today’s working age.
” Younger, these generations are more exposed to ethnocultural, religious and gender diversity, and grow up in a technological and interconnected universe that has a huge impact on their values and way of life. “
These generations now make up a large portion of the working -age population, leading to changes in the labor market.featured Statistics Canada in its generational portrait.
Gender diversity will enter the census
In 2021, for the first time, the census included questions on the gender of respondents by mentioning at birth to allow cisgender, transgender or non -binary people to declare their gender.
Thus, 100,815 respondents aged 15 and over living in a private household declared themselves as transgender or non -binary, representing 0.33% of this segment of the population.
Statistics Canada also found that the number of transgender or non -binary people is three to seven times higher among Generation Z and millennial members than in any other generational group.
Note that Canada is the first country to collect and publish data on gender diversity from a national census, Statistics Canada says.
Source: Radio-Canada
