OTTAWA, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- The median age for Canadians this year has edged up to 39.9 years, a gain of 0.2 years in the past 12 months, Statistics Canada reported Wednesday.
The annual demographic snapshot was done July 1 and showed the number of people aged 65 years or older was up 0.3 percent to 4,973,400, or 14.4 percent of Canada's population of 34.4 million.
"The main factors explaining the aging of the Canadian population are fertility rates persistently below the generation replacement level of 2.1 children per woman and an increasing life expectancy," StatsCan said. "The proportion of seniors will grow more rapidly in the coming years as the first generation of baby boomers is now reaching the age of 65."
The youngest population in Canada was in the northeastern territory of Nunavut, where the median age was 24.8 years, with 31.5 percent of the population under the age of 15, the report said.
The province of Newfoundland and Labrador had the highest median age at 43.8 years and the median age in the other Atlantic provinces was also above the national average.
