Canada’s shifting demographic profile - Video transcript
(The Statistics Canada and the Canada wordmarks are one screen with the title: Canada's shifting demographic profile)
The 2021 Census of Population included for the first time a question on gender and the precision of "at birth" on the sex question, allowing all cisgender, transgender and non-binary individuals to report their gender.
Of the nearly 30.5 million people in Canada aged 15 and older in May 2021, 59,460 were transgender and 41,355 were non-binary.
The proportions of transgender and non-binary people were three to seven times higher for Generation Z, born 1997 to 2012, and millennials, born 1981 to 1996, than for other generations. These include Generation X, born 1966 to 1980; baby boomers, born 1946 to 1965; and the Interwar and Greatest Generations, born before 1946.
Younger generations may be more comfortable reporting their gender identity than older generations.
In May 2021, the Canadian population aged 15 and older had an average age of 48.0 years. In comparison, the transgender population had an average age of 39.4 years, while the non-binary population had an average age of 30.4 years.
Just under 1 in 100 young adults aged 20 to 24 were non-binary or transgender.
Nearly 1 in 6 non-binary people aged 15 and older lived in the downtown core of a large urban centre.
More than one in five working-age people – those aged 15 to 64 – is close to retirement. This proportion represents an all-time high in the history of Canadian censuses.
From 2016 to 2021, the number of persons aged 65 and older rose 18.3%. This is the second largest increase in 75 years.
The number of persons aged 85 and older has doubled since 2001, reaching 861,000 in 2021. This number could triple by 2046.
From 2016 to 2021, the number of children under the age of 15 grew at a pace six times slower than the number of people aged 65 and older.
These demographic shifts are due to low fertility, the gradual increase in life expectancy, and the fact that the large baby boom generation started turning 65 in 2011.
While aging, Canada still has one of the youngest populations among the G7 countries.
Urban centres have younger populations on average.
Working-age people account for three-quarters of the population of downtowns.
Factors like population aging and increasing urbanization have a significant impact on housing demand in Canada. The number of apartments located in high-rise apartment buildings increased more than twice as fast as the total number of private dwellings from 2016 to 2021.
Despite the rapid growth in the number of apartments, single detached houses remain the most common type of dwelling in Canada.
For more information, including data at the provincial, territorial and subprovincial levels, consult the 2021 Census Daily release of April 27, 2022.
(The Canada wordmark is on screen)