Retirement incomes prove better than expected: StatsCan

From a financial point of view at least, retirement has been turning out better than expected for many Canadians, according to a new study from Statistics Canada.

The national statistical agency published the latest data from a study that began by asking near-retirees back in 2014 about their financial expectations in retirement, and followed up with those same respondents as retirees in 2020.

Overall, the study found that retirement has been comfortable financially for more people than expected.

Back in 2014, just over two-thirds (67.5%) said they expected their retirement income to be adequate, or more than adequate, to comfortably maintain their standard of living.

“Now retired in 2020, 81.6% found that their retirement income was sufficient to comfortably cover their living expenses,” StatsCan reported.

These results held up for specific demographic groups detailed in the study, too.

For example, in 2014, 68.5% of men and 66.4% of women expected to have an adequate retirement income.

In 2020, StatsCan found that 82.2% of men and 81.0% of women reported that their income in retirement was comfortably covering their living expenses.

Similarly, StatsCan found that people with a disability and those with high school education or less were also pleasantly surprised by the adequacy of their income in retirement.

It reported that 72.4% of those with a disability, and 73.5% of people with a high school education or less, found that their retirement income comfortably covered their living expenses.

“These proportions surpassed their expectations by 17.1 and 23.2 percentage points, respectively,” StatsCan noted.

James Langton

James is a senior reporter for Advisor.ca and its sister publication, Investment Executive. He has been reporting on regulation, securities law, industry news and more since 1994.