Percentage of kids under four years in Nunavut shows big increase: StatsCan

If you live in Nunavut, you may be seeing more little kids around your community.

New figures on age and gender released May 29 by Statistics Canada show that, for the first time in 50 years, the number of children aged four and under increased in all provinces and territories between 2006 and 2011.

And the largest increases occurred in Nunavut, where the number of children in that age group rose by 17.7 per cent, and in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec, and Yukon. In 2011, there were 3,970 kids under four living in Nunavut.

In most provinces and territories, the increase was the largest increase since the end of the post-war baby boom of the 1940s and 1950s.

In 2011, men also outnumbered women in the working-age population in Nunavut, Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories.

Two factors are related to this situation, StatsCan said.

First, the populations of these provinces and territories are among the youngest in Canada, and younger populations tend to have more men than women, as there are more men than women up to about age 25.

As well, all three territorial capitals, Yellowknife, Whitehorse and Iqaluit, were among the top 10 municipalities with proportionally large working-age populations. That’s because the territorial capitals attract workers from other parts of the territories or other parts of Canada, StatsCan said.

More than seven in 10 people who live in Iqaluit are of working-age.

In 2011, the population of Nunavut stood at 31,905. Of this number, there were 10,425 children under 14, 20,420 from 15 to 65, and 1,060 over 65.

Nunavut also had the lowest percentage of seniors in Canada, about three per cent. Seniors accounted for a record high of 14.8 per cent of the population in Canada in 2011, StatsCan said.