More Seniors in Urban Areas

Overall, 81.5% of Alberta’s seniors were located in urban areas in 2006. (Note: As defined by Statistics Canada, urban areas have a population of 1,000 or more and a population density of at least 400 people per square kilometre. Rural areas include all territory lying outside urban areas.)

In 2006, the majority of Alberta’s seniors lived in the two Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs) of Edmonton and Calgary (61.1%). (Note: Statistics Canada defines a Census Metropolitan Area as being a very large urban area that is combined together with adjacent urban and rural areas and has an urban core population of at least 100,000 based on the previous Census.) Seniors accounted for 11.1% of the population in the Edmonton CMA and 9.4% of the population in the Calgary CMA.

A greater proportion of older seniors live in urban settings. In 2006, 88.3% of seniors aged 90 years and older resided in urban areas, an increase of 2.1% from 2001.

There were a greater proportion of male seniors in rural areas, whereas female seniors made up the majority in urban areas. In 2006, 53.8% of seniors in rural areas were male while in urban areas, 43.7% of seniors were male.

Chart 5
A Higher Percentage of Older Seniors Live in Urban Areas

Source: Statistics Canada, 2006 Census of Canada Custom Tabulations

As a percentage of the total population, the Camrose (20.3%) and Wetaskiwin (18.9%) Census Agglomerations (CAs) had the highest proportion of seniors, followed by the Medicine Hat (14.5%) and Lethbridge (14.2%) CAs. (Note: Statistics Canada defines a Census Agglomeration as an area that is combined with other municipalities that has an urban core of at least 10,000 people.) Alberta’s most northern CA, Wood Buffalo, continued to have the lowest percentage of seniors (2.0%).

The age distribution of seniors also varied throughout the province. For example, in 2006, 30.5% of all Alberta seniors were between 65 to 69 years. In comparison, almost half of the seniors in the Wood Buffalo CA were between 65 to 69 years old (46.1%).

The Wetaskiwin and Camrose CAs had the highest proportion of older seniors, with 6.6% and 6.4% of their total population aged 80 years and older.