According to a new report by Statistics Canada, and reported in the Montreal Gazette, Canadian workers are not experiencing retirement living until 67 years old. In the mid-1990s, the average retirement age for Canadians was more than three years younger.
“Canadians, especially in the private sector, are delaying their retirement,” Ian Markham, an actuary with Towers Watson, a consulting firm in Toronto. “There's a general worry out there over whether they'll have enough money to live on.”
According to the article, the average length of retirement for Canadians has nearly doubled since 1977, when for men, retirement lasted about 11 years, and for women, it was 16. By 2004, the length of retirement grew to 15 years, and for women, it grew to about 20 years.
But not all experts say longer retirement is a bad thing; while more people are running short on money, they are still living longer, healthier lives.
“Postponing travel plans or golfing… one might plan on pursuing during the retirement years might not seem like such a sacrifice when one can expect to live into their 80s, or even into the 90s or 100s,” Prof. Barbara Mitchell of Simon Fraser University, told the news source.