The majority of Canadians aged 50 years and older are optimistic about their future, but concerns remain for those with health or financial challenges, according to a new survey from the National Institute on Ageing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Released Tuesday, the inaugural <\/span>Ageing in Canada Survey<\/span><\/a> takes an in-depth look at social well-being, financial security, and health and independence among Canadians aged 50 years and older. <\/span><\/p>\n

Overall, the report found that most (63%) reported feeling positive about aging. What\u2019s more, the oldest Canadians in the survey \u2014 those 80 and over \u2014 felt the best about growing older, expressing a more positive attitude toward most aspects of aging compared to those aged 50 to 79.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese findings are reassuring at a time when Canada is facing unprecedented demographic realities with Canadians aged 65 years and older representing the fastest-growing segment of the population,\u201d the report said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The majority of those surveyed said they had strong social networks they could rely on (70%), were socially engaged (60%), believed they had adequate financial resources (72%), were usually able to access the health care and community support services they needed (68%), and had confidence in their ability to age in their own homes (89%).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On the flip side, those who reported their health as fair or poor (15%) and their income as inadequate (26%) fared worse across indicators of social well-being, health and independence, and retirement readiness than those in good health and with adequate income.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Among respondents who were still working and intended to retire, only a minority (35%) reported feeling confident in their ability to afford retirement when they wanted; 37% reported that they were not in a position to financially afford to retire.<\/span><\/p>\n

One in four of those surveyed (26%) said their income was not enough for them, with 19% saying they were stretched and 7% saying they were having a hard time.<\/span><\/p>\n

In terms of their health and independence, one in four (28%) Canadians aged 50 years and older reported that they struggled to access the health-care services they needed over the last 12 months. Further, four in 10 (41%) were deemed at risk of social isolation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The report also highlighted ageism as a problem, with 31% of older Canadians and 40% of those born outside of Canada reporting they have been discriminated against or mistreated because of their age.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 2022 NIA Ageing in Canada Survey was conducted online with 5,885 Canadians aged 50 years and older who live in the community (as opposed to long-term care homes or other institutional settings) from July 5 to Aug. 7, 2022. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A report found those over 80 were more positive about aging than younger retirees<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":173895,"featured_media":445609,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2312,2313],"tags":[2346],"yst_prominent_words":[2116,6041,6044,6045,7440,8400,9281,16177,18428,28360,35592,35596,62362],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457827"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/173895"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457827"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":457837,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457827\/revisions\/457837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457827"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmentexecutive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=457827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}