Working-age population older

Canada’s working-age population is growing older in record high proportion, according to StatsCan’s 2011 Census: Age and sex. Within the working-age group, 42.4 per cent of people were aged between 45 and 64. This was well above the proportion of 28.6 per cent in 1991, when the first baby boomers reached age 45. In 2011, nearly all people aged between 45 and 64 were baby boomers. For the first time, census data showed that there were more people in the age group 55 to 64, where people typically are about to leave the labour force, than in the age group 15 to 24, where people typically are about to enter it. The 2011 Census counted 4 393 305 people aged 55 to 64. In contrast, there were 4 365 585 people aged 15 to 24. In 2001, for every person aged 55 to 64, there were 1.40 people in the age group 15 to 24. By 2011, this ratio had fallen slightly below 1 (0.99) for the first time. This means that for each person leaving the working-age group in 2011, there was about one person entering it.