Statistics Canada’s released a report this week that on July 1, 2023, for the first time, the millennial generation (born between 1981 and 1996) comprised a greater number of people in the population than the baby boomer generation, (born between 1946 and 1965) thanks to an immigration surge. It’s a title the baby boomers’ generation has held in the country for the past 65 years.

 It was slowed by the increase in permanent and temporary immigration as the many recent immigrants are on average younger than the rest of the Canadian population. The average age of the Canadian population (41.7 years) fell slightly from July 1, 2022, to July 1, 2023, a first since 1958.

 However, the number and proportion of people aged 65 years and older have continued to rise, driven by the aging of the large baby boomer cohorts. 

As this shift takes place in Toronto and elsewhere, experts say millennials’ ability to thrive will depend on having access to adequate, affordable homes. Particularly those large enough to raise a family, as well as other social infrastructures like childcare.

This change may benefit Canadian society by increasing the size of the working-age population, possibly helping to alleviate the pressures of the labour shortages, the report says. 

But while the latest census found millennials to be the country’s fastest-growing population — having increased by 8.6 per cent across Canada between the 2016 and 2021 surveys — the number of young children in Canada has been dropping.
There were 3.6 per cent fewer kids under five last year than counted in 2016. And in the Toronto area, the 2021 census found seniors over 65 had overtaken children under 15 for the first time.

 Millennials are not the only generation to have increased their demographic weight. Generation Z, born between 1997 and 2012 has become the third-largest generation in Canada, now surpassing Generation X born between 1966 and 1980.