Quote:
Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse
I think the concern isn't just a false belief that the older generation is a lot bigger than the younger. It's that it should be a lot smaller rather than slightly larger. If each generation started out with fairly equal numbers rather than there being a baby boom, the older generation would gradually shrink over the years with a small number of people dying each year of everything from illness to accidents, suicides and crime, before reaching retirement age. But the average life expectancy has been constantly growing, and since the boomer generation was so big to begin with, that even with decades worth of deaths accounted for it still manages to be slightly larger rather than a lot smaller.
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That's very clearly shown on this
Statistics Canada age pyramid. In 2003 there were 4 million people aged 65 and over, and they were just 13% of the population. In 2023 there were 7.5 million, and they represent 19% of the population.
You can see how the cohort of 20-39 year old grew thanks to net immigration. In 2003 there were 7.9 million aged 0-19, and 20 years later there were 11.3 million aged 20-39, so there was a net gain of 3.4 million in that 20 year age cohort of the population.
You can see them arriving in Canada;
7.9m 0-19 in 2003,
8.3m 5-24 in 2008,
8.9m 10-29 in 2013
9.7m 15-34 in 2018
11.3m 20-39 in 2023
The proportion of the population of working age is pretty consistent. If the 20-64 age cohorts are a fair depiction of working age, then it explains why immigration of working age people has been an important policy. [
Statistics Canada population estimates by age]
Going back 40 years
1983 60%
1988 61%
1993 61%
1998 61%
2003 62%
2008 63%
2013 62%
2018 61%
2023 60%
That's presumably with the immigrants included.
The proportion of the population aged 0-19 has fallen from 25% of the population in 2003 to 21% in 2023, although the number of 0-19s increased from 7.7m in 1983, 7.9m in 2003 and 8.4m in 2023.