Territory only jurisdiction with average age under 30

Nunavut's population is aging a little, but still has a long way to go to catch up with southern Canada's graying population.

The latest round of 2006 census figures released this past week by Statistics Canada show Nunavut still has by far the youngest population the country.

The average age of Nunavummiut is 23.1 years, well below the next youngest population in the Northwest Territories, which has an average age of 31.2 years. Canada's average age is 39.5 years.

Alberta, which has the youngest population among the provinces, has a median age of 36 years, the figures say. Yukon's median age is 38.4 years.

The proportion of Nunavummiut who are under 15 is 33.9 per cent, compared with only 17.7 per cent for Canada.

The census figures say Iqalummiut are, on average, older than people in the communities, with an average age in the capital of 28.2 years. A smaller proportion are children: just over 25 per cent of Iqalummiut are under the age of 15.

Kugaaruk is Nunavut's baby, with a median age of just 18 years and more than 41 per cent of its population under 15. Repulse Bay has the fewest elders over 65, with 1.3 per cent of its population older than 65 years. Baker Lake has the highest proportion of seniors, at 4.6 per cent.

Nunavut's low median age also translates into the lowest proportion of people over 65. Just 2.7 per cent of Nunavummiut are age 65 or older, while the national rate stands at an all-time high of 13.7 per cent.

And at a time when southern provinces are worried about how to fill jobs vacated by retiring baby boomers, in Nunavut there are 3.5 people entering the workforce for every person on the verge of retiring. Still, Nunavut has the smallest share of its population in the workforce (aged 15 to 64) at 63.3 per cent. That figure is well below the national average of 68.6 per cent.

The figures show there are slightly more than 23 people aged 15 to 64 for every elder over 65 in the territory.

That's down from 27 in the 2001 census, but still well above the national ratio of 5 people aged 15 to 64 for every person over 65.

Nunavut also has the highest male-female ratio in Canada with 105.2 for every 100 women. Only the Northwest Territories and Alberta have more men than women: the national ratio is 95.9 men for every 100 women.

And the older the population, the greater the difference in numbers of men and women: in the 80 years and older bracket, there are 133 men for every 100 women. That contrasts sharply with the Canadian average of 55 men over 80 for every 100 women.