As Canada gets older, Nunavut gets younger, StatsCan reports

This graph shows the dramatic differences between Nunavut’s population profile and that of all other provinces and territories. (STATSCAN IMAGE)

Canada may be experiencing an explosion in the number of seniors aged 65 and older, but in Nunavut, it’s the population of children and youth that’s growing fast, Statistics Canada reported May 3.

The report, based on data gathered during the 2016 census, shows that in Nunavut, nearly one in every three people—32.5 per cent of the territory’s population, are now aged 14 and younger.

That’s about double the proportion for Canada, where only 16.6 per cent of people are aged 14 and younger.

At the same time, Nunavut’s proportion of seniors aged 65 and older is barely growing at all.

Between 2011 and 2016, Nunavut’s proportion of people aged 65 and older grew by only 0.5 per cent, and people in that age group represent only 3.8 per cent of the territory’s population.

But for Canada, the senior population grew by a rate of 20 per cent during that five-year period.

And Canada’s seniors aged 65 and older now represent 16.9 per cent of the country’s population.

If current trends continue, nearly one in four Canadians, 23 per cent, could be aged 65 and older by 2031, StatsCan said.

In the other two territories and the three prairie provinces, children 14 and younger also outnumber seniors, but not by the same dramatic margins seen in Nunavut.

In the Northwest Territories, 21.2 per cent of the population is 14 and younger and 7.7 per cent of the NWT’s population is 65 or older.

And in the prairie provinces, one of five people were 14 and younger, and much higher proportion than anywhere else in Canada, with the exception of the NWT and Nunavut.

As of Jan. 1, 2017, StatsCan reported that Canada’s population now stands at about 36.5 million. Nunavut’s population is now estimated, as of Jan. 1, 2017, at 37,280.