According to Statistics Canada’s work on data from the last census, baby boomers, who represented 41.7% of the Canadian population in 1966, now represent only 24.9% of the population, or the equivalent of 9,212 640 individuals all born between 1946 and 1965.
The demographic weight of baby boomers fell by 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 due to the higher mortality linked to their age group, but also because they have exceeded the age when immigrants arrive in large numbers in the country.
Immigration is therefore no longer an important factor in the growth of this generation.
points out Statistics Canada.
An aging Canada
The high life expectancy and low fertility rate in Canada means that the Canadian population is getting older. 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 has grown six times faster than that of children aged 0 to 14. »
Even if Canada welcomes many immigrants, their arrival in the country is not enough to reverse this serious trend, show the most recent demographic data.
In 2021, more than 861,000 people aged 85 and over in the country were counted, twice as many as in the 2001 census.
Overall, it is in the western provinces and the territories that the population is the youngest in Canada, while it is in the Atlantic that it is the oldest. It is in fact in Newfoundland and Labrador that the proportion of people aged 65 and over grew 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 the baby boomers are slowly giving way to the younger generations, it is those known as millennials or generation Y who are seeing their demographic weight increase the fastest in the country.
Born between 1981 and 1996, Millennials, or millennials as they’re also known, saw an 8.6% growth in their age group between 2016 and 2021 compared to a 5.2% increase for the whole of population during the same period.
It is essentially to immigration that we owe this greater growth in the demographic weight of millennials, explains Statistics Canada, which points out that more than half of the immigrants welcomed into the country between 2016 and 2021 were millennials, that is that is, people between the ages of 25 and 40. There were 7,926,575 millennials in Canada in 2021, or 33.2% of the working-age population.
Generation Z, also called zoomer.
Photo: iStock
Highly urbanized, in 2021 they represented 35.1% of the population of the city centers of large urban agglomerations in the country, while baby boomers represented 20.9%.
Generation X, which includes people aged 41 to 55, which numbered 7,069,355 at the last census, grew by 2.3% between 2016 and 2021.
The Z group, aged 9 to 24, increased by 6.4% during the same period. This is the second highest population growth observed among all generations, reports Statistics Canada.
Generation Alpha, aged 8 or younger, numbered 3,194,415 in 2021. It is the only generation that benefits from fertility to increase its population
note the statisticians.
Among the oldest, the grandiose generation (94 years and over) as well as the inter-war generation (76 to 93 years), see their demographic weight gradually decrease over the years due to their advancing age. , but also because immigration no longer constitutes a growth factor for them.
The grandiose generation, which numbered 135,560 people in 2021, shows a decline of 67.2% in its demographic weight compared to 2016, while the generation between the wars, with 2,716,910 individuals, has decreased by 20. 8% over the period.
A changing society
These generational transformations will certainly have an impact on Canadian society, say Statistics Canada researchers, particularly among aging baby boomers who will redefine the concept of retirement and the end of life compared to other generations.
The fact that they have had fewer children than their parents, that they stay longer in the labor market and that they will probably live longer than their parents will certainly have an impact on the capitalization of retirement funds, the labor shortages, health care and social services that they will need more and more in the coming years.
Baby boomers differ from their parents in particular by staying longer in the labor market.
Photo: iStock
Their desire for autonomy and their number will probably also have a significant impact on the development of home care. The oldest of them will be 85 in 2031.
In contrast, Zs and millennials, who are considered to be more educated and diverse than previous generations
embody the change in the working-age population today.
” Still young, these generations are more exposed to ethnocultural, religious and gender diversity, and have grown up in a technological and interconnected universe that has a significant impact on their values and way of life. »
These generations now make up a considerable share of the working-age population, leading to transformations in the labor market
highlights Statistics Canada in its generational portrait.
Reference-ici.radio-canada.ca