The majority of Canadians 80-plus have positive attitudes towards old age, report says

From CTVNews.ca

February 2, 2024

The majority of Canadians 80-plus have positive attitudes towards old age, report says

The majority of Canadians 80 and older have positive feelings about aging, according to a new report.

The research, released on Wednesday by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), surveyed Canadians 50 and older to evaluate the social well-being, financial security, health and independence of Canada's aging population.

Aiming to assess the broader experience of getting older in Canada, the survey found that participants 80-plus reported the most positive outlooks on aging, with 75 per cent of that cohort rating high well-being, social connections and financial security, despite diminishing health concerns commonly associated with old age.

"There is an old stereotype about lonely older people," Keith Neuman, one of the NIA report authors and the executive director of the Environics Institute, told CTVNews.ca during a phone interview.

"We imagine, in some ways perhaps, that the oldest Canadians are the (most lonely) because nobody is around anymore, or they're on their own. But certainly in terms of the oldest Canadians who are still living in the community – in other words, not in home care or in nursing homes – they actually seem to have good social connections."

Neuman added that, generally speaking, positive outlooks towards getting older actually increase with age.

Read the report on Ageing in Canada.