The National Institute on Ageing’s fourth annual survey of Canadians aged 50 and older finds 43 per cent now say they cannot afford to retire when they had hoped, up from 38 per cent in 2024, while optimism about aging, loneliness and access to primary care all remain stubborn problems.
Optimism falls for the first time
The institute surveyed just over 6,000 adults aged 50 and older in June and July for its fourth annual report, Perspectives on Growing Older in Canada, released Tuesday with support from Manulife.
A majority of respondents — 57 per cent — still said they had positive feelings about aging, but that is down from 62 per cent in 2024, the first sharp drop after years of stability.
Talia Bronstein, director of policy at the National Institute on Ageing, said the findings show older adults increasingly can’t afford to retire, feel lonely and socially isolated, and in many cases don’t have a primary care doctor — although that last measure has modestly improved, with just under a third of respondents still lacking one.
Retirement becomes a moving target
The financial trend is steady and one-directional. Among Canadians 50 and older who have not yet retired, the share who believe they can afford to retire at their desired time has fallen from 35 per cent in 2022 to 29 per cent in 2025. Over the same period, those saying they cannot afford to retire on schedule rose from 37 per cent to 43 per cent, with about a quarter unsure.
The savings picture explains much of it: among working Canadians over 50, 22 per cent report retirement savings of $5,000 or less, excluding property and workplace pensions. The survey also found the financially stretched are the least likely to have a plan — 43 per cent of those struggling want to retire but have made no concrete plans, and nearly a third of those having a hard time say they never intend to retire at all.
The stakes keep growing because retirement itself is getting longer. Canadians aged 50 and over now make up 38 per cent of the population — about 15.7 million people — and Canada is approaching “super-aged” status, with more than one in five residents over 65. For some, retirement could last up to 40 years, straining a system built around Old Age Security, the Guaranteed Income Supplement and the Canada and Quebec pension plans.
Loneliness and care
Social isolation and loneliness remained, in the institute’s words, “stubbornly high” and essentially unchanged over the four years of the survey: 43 per cent of respondents are at risk of social isolation, and more than half report experiencing loneliness.
Dr. Jillian Alston, a Toronto geriatrician who was not involved in the survey, said the findings show how interrelated the pressures are, and how financial insecurity permeates all of them.
“You’re more likely to be feeling more lonely or less engaged. If you’re financially insecure, it’s probably going to amplify the challenges with getting to and accessing your health care, and then you can see that it seems like it’s a vicious cycle,” Alston said.
Access to care remains part of that cycle: just under a third of respondents reported not having a primary care doctor, an improvement from previous years but still a large share of the population entering the years when regular care matters most.
