Statistics Canada says there are now more millennials than baby boomers in the country, ending the 65-year reign of the post-Second World War generation as the largest cohort in the population.
The federal agency noted the change in its population estimate for July 1, 2023, broken down by age and gender released on Feb. 21.
The baby boomer generation became the largest in Canada in 1958—seven years before the last baby boomer was even born. They accounted for 40 percent of the population from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s.
The federal agency says higher immigration through both permanent and temporary streams in 2022 and 2023 has helped slow population aging.
“However, the effect of receiving a high number of immigrants in 2022 and 2023 on the decline of the average and median ages is temporary, as population aging is unavoidable,” the report says.
The average age in Canada dropped slightly between July 1, 2022 and July 1, 2023 for the first time since 1958.
Meanwhile, the number and proportion of people aged 65 years and older have continued to rise.
The federal agency says the share of millennials and generation Z is increasing, while the reverse is true for baby boomers and generation X.
Those trends have helped widen the share of the working-age population, which increased in 2023 after steadily declining over the previous 15 years.
Statistics Canada estimates generation Z could overtake millennials in numbers sometime between 2038 and 2053.
