Canadian Military Experience - Video transcript
(The Statistics Canada symbol and Canada wordmark appear on screen with the title: "Income profile of Canadians")
Canadian Military Experience
The 2021 census included the first census profile of Canada’s military in half a century. Once a decade from 1951 up to 1971, Statistics Canada asked Canadians about their military service. However, the 2021 Census marks the first time Statistics Canada asked Canadians whether they were active CAF members serving in the Regular Force or Primary Reserve Force.
In 2021, 97,625 Canadians were reported in the census as serving in the Canadian Armed Forces as members of the Regular Force or Primary Reserve Force.
For more than 100 years, women have contributed to Canada’s military heritage and, in 2021, almost one-fifth of currently serving Canadian military personnel enumerated in the census were women.
The Canadian Armed Forces members had an average age of 36.2 years old, younger on average than the employed labour force overall, which averages 41.9 years old. Women currently serving in the armed forces were older than their male counterparts.
35.4% of members were residing in Ontario and 20.2% in Quebec. These two provinces had the highest share of currently serving military personnel.
Belleville—Quinte West and Kingston had the largest share of military personnel among Canada’s census metropolitan areas, given that they are both in close proximity to military bases.
In 2021, 461,240 Canadians were counted as Veterans in the census.
For more details, please refer to the Census Daily, Canadian Military Experience Reference Guide and the summary technical report released on July 13, 2022.
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