Seniors further outpacing youth across Nanaimo & Oceanside region

It’s the second release of information collected last year, with the first data dump showing how much the region had grown, upwards of twice the national rate, in the last five years.

Parksville drove much of the increase in age and change in demographic splits for the RDN, with the City’s average age of 55.

Statistics Canada also showed 44.3 per cent of Parksville residents were aged 65 and up, an increase of two per cent from 2016, while just 9.2 per cent were under 14 years old.

Parksville’s population broken down by age, showing a harsh skewing towards people aged 65+, well above national figures. (Statistics Canada)

Women are also outnumbering men throughout the region, on a roughly 52-48 split in both the cities of Nanaimo and Parksville as well as the RDN.

They’re also living longer.

As of May 11, 2021, Nanaimo also had five men and 30 women who were 100 years or older while the RDN overall had 10 men and 50 women listed as centenarians.

The 2021 census also revealed the number of people over the age of 85 has more than doubled nationwide since 2001 and is expected to keep accelerating.

By 2050, the 85-and-older population could reach more than 2.7-million people, prompting questions about who will care for them and where they will live.

As it is, wait-lists for long-term care beds can stretch on for years, leaving people stuck in hospitals or families struggling to care for their loved ones at home.

Those issues are especially pronounced in the Maritimes, where seniors over 85 could make up more than six per cent of the population by 2043.

Meanwhile, the newly released census data shows 0.33 per cent of Canadians aged 15 or older, or about 100,815 people, identify as transgender or non-binary.

Data on non-binary people at a local level is not available and has been amalgamated into the new “men+” and “women+” categories in order to protect the confidentiality of responses.

The new information from Statistics Canada gives an unprecedented snapshot into Canada’s transgender and non-binary population, which some advocates say is long overdue.

Last year’s national household survey included a revamped section on gender, differentiating for the first time between the sex a person was assigned at birth and their gender.

Gemma Hickey, a transmasculine non-binary author and activist, says it’s “about time” the census acknowledged people who exist outside the gender binary.

Hickey became one of the first Canadians to receive a gender-neutral birth certificate in 2017.

They hope the census will spark a broader conversation by acknowledging that the sex a person was assigned at birth is not necessarily the same as gender.

Through Nanaimo, the RDN and Parksville, women outnumbered men by a roughly 52-48 split, inclusive of non-binary people who were evenly distributed into the two categories.

Nanaimo’s population breakdown more closely represented the Canadian averages, with a slightly higher senior population than Canadian figures. (Statistics Canada)

— with files from The Canadian Press

Join the conversation. Submit your letter to NanaimoNewsNOW and be included on The Water Cooler, our letters to the editor feature.

info@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @NanaimoNewsNOW

by NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

Seniors further outpacing youth across Nanaimo & Oceanside region

More Local News