Age and sex

Release no. 2: July 17, 2007

• According to the 2006 Census, the 65-and-over population made up a record 13.7% of the total population of Canada in 2006. The proportion of the under-15 population fell to 17.7%, its lowest level ever.
• Canada is still one of the youngest countries in the G8, as only the United States has a lower proportion of elderly people (12.4% compared with 13.7%).
• The number of people aged 55 to 64, many of whom are workers approaching retirement, has never been so high in Canada, at close to 3.7 million in 2006.
• Canada's urban areas had a much larger young working-age population (aged 20 to 44) than rural areas, which were generally older. The differences are due primarily to internal migration of young adults, who often leave the rural areas in their late teens or early twenties to pursue their education or find work in urban areas, and to international immigration, which is heavily concentrated in large urban centres.