ABSTRACT
The number of older persons has tripled over the last 50 years and, according to the United Nations, will more than triple again over the next 50 years. By the year 2050, projections indicate that more than one in five persons throughout the world will be 60 years or older. Seniors (aged 65 years or older) are one of the fastest-growing population groups in Canada, according to Statistics Canada (2001a). In 2000, there were an estimated 3.8 million Canadians aged 65 and over, up 62 per cent from 2.4 million in 1981. In fact, the senior population has grown twice as fast as the overall population since the early 1980s. As a result, more than one out of every eight Canadians is now a senior. In 2000, they represented 13 per cent of the population, up from 10 per cent in 1981 and 8 per cent in 1971. Statistics Canada (2001b), further reports that although the Canadian population has aged rapidly in the past several decades, the senior component of the population is still relatively small compared with other major industrialized countries. In the late 1990s, for example, 12 per cent of all Canadians were aged 65 and older, compared with 13 per cent in the Netherlands, 14 per cent in the United States, 15 per cent in France, Japan and Switzerland, 16 per cent in the United Kingdom and Germany, and 17 per cent in Sweden and Italy.
