Contemporary Portrait of Canadian Veterans: Information from the 2021 Census

In May 2021, for the first time in 50 years, the national census asked a question to identify Veterans of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) living in the country.

What is this research about?

This study provides an initial overview of CAF Veterans living in Canada as of May 2021. Comparisons are made to other Canadians to better understand similarities and differences in areas such as age, activity and income. Census 2021 findings can inform improvements to outreach and supports for Canadian Veterans.

What did the researcher do?

The researchers analyzed the Veteran data from the Census. They examined key areas related to well-being and compared Veteran results by gender, and also made comparisons with the general Canadian population.

What did the researchers find?

There were 461,240 CAF Veterans living in Canada on Census Day (May 11, 2021). This accounted for 1.5% of the population of Canada aged 17 and over.

The gender composition of Veterans was very different than that of Canadians:

• Veterans = 83.8% men+^{Footnote 1} and 16.2% women+^{Footnote 2}
• Canadians = 48.8% men+ and 51.2% women+

There were many similarities between Veterans and other Canadians, however there were differences in some areas. For example, Veterans were:

• older, with an average age of 61 vs 49
• more likely to be married/common-law (67.0% vs 59.2%)
• more likely to be living alone (23.1% vs 15.8%)
• more likely to report an Indigenous identity (5.2% vs 4.4%)
• less likely to have their income fall below the poverty line (5.1% vs 8.0%) or below the low-income measure (11.5% vs 13.8%)
• more likely to have an apprenticeship/trades certificate (14.5% vs 8.9%), and less likely to have a university bachelor’s degree or higher (22.1% vs 27.4%)
• less likely to have a total income below $50,000 (44.0% vs 59.5%)
• less likely to be unemployed (8.9% vs 10.2%)
• more likely to report “always having difficulties” with activities of daily living (28.1% vs 14.9%)

Among the Veteran population in Census 2021, there were many similarities among men+ Veterans and women+ Veterans, however there were notable differences in some areas. For example, women+ Veterans were more likely to:

• identify as Indigenous (6.5% vs 4.9%)
• have children (53.2% vs 39.7%)
• be living alone (28.1% vs 22.2%)
• have a total income below $50,000 (52.9% vs 42.4%)
• be widowed, separated or divorced (27.0% vs 17.8%)
• have a university bachelor’s degree or higher (28.6% vs 20.9%)
• have a core housing need (7.0% vs 5.1%)

Source

Sweet J, Poirier A, Pound T, Contemporary Portrait of Canadian Veterans, Information from the 2021 Census. Charlottetown PE: Veterans Affairs Canada. Research Directorate Technical Report, 31 Mar 2024.