Some key numbers culled from the 2006 census on the population's age and sex, released by Statistics Canada on July 17, 2007:

1.1:1 — Ratio of people (aged 15-24) about to enter the workforce to people (aged 55-64) about to leave it. Statistics Canada predicts changes in this ratio will mean major challenges for employers, including high turnover rates, the need for "knowledge transfer" and continuous training.

2.7 — Percentage of seniors in Nunavut, well below the national average of 13.7. The aberration is explained by the territory's high fertility rates and below-average life expectancy.

6 — Canada's ranking among G8 countries in terms of its proportion of seniors. While Canada's population is growing older, it's still younger than most industrialized nations. Japan is the oldest, with senior citizens making up 20.8 per cent of its population.

10.2 — Percentage of people aged 80 and over who live in Parksville, B.C., meaning the Vancouver Island community has the highest proportion of octogenarians in the country.

17.7 — Percentage of children (14 and under) among the country's population. Never before in the history of Canada have children made up such a small segment of society.

20.8 — Percentage of children in the metropolitan area of Barrie, Ont., making it Canada's youngest urban centre.

30.5 — Percentage of Canadians from the baby boom generation (born from 1946-65). Although they're getting greyer, boomers still make up the largest segment of society.

36.5 — Proportion of children in Atlantic Canada in 1956. Fifty years later, kids make up just 16.1 per cent of the populations in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, P.E.I. and Newfoundland and Labrador, which makes Atlantic Canada the oldest region in the country.

39.5 — The country's median age. That's the dividing age at which half the population is younger and half is older. Canada's median age has been rising steadily since 1966, when it was 25.4.

4,635 — Number of centenarians enumerated in 2006, a 50 per cent increase in the number since the 1996 census. Of the total, 3,825 were women.

146,000 — Decline in the under-15 population of the country since the 2001 census. Because Canadians are having fewer kids, Statistics Canada is predicting children will be outnumbered by seniors within the next decade.

4.3 million — Number of seniors in Canada in 2006. Statistics Canada predicts that number will hit 5.8 million in another 10 years.