Number of Canadians living to 100 hit a record high, new census figures show

The number of Canadians living to 100 and beyond reached a record high in 2021. Some centenarians say getting there is all about keeping your hands busy, having a loving family and enjoying life's small pleasures.

New figures released by Statistics Canada show that the number of Canadians aged 100 or older has increased from just 1,065 in 1971 to 9,545 in the 2021 census. Most Canadian centenarians — 7,715 — are women.

The increase can't be explained by simple population growth. In 1971, just 4.9 people out of every 100,000 Canadians were 100 or older; in 2021, it was 25.8 per 100,000.

Laura Tamblyn Watts is the founder and CEO of CanAge, a national seniors' advocacy organization. She said that Canadians are living much longer now thanks to improved drug therapies and vaccines, coupled with a more active lifestyle.

"We are out more in the world, we're walking more, we're engaged in more physical exercise and we have more flexibility in our work schedule," she said.

"It's a big change from really being stuck in offices and factories as we were used to in much earlier years. Movement matters."

Watts said that loneliness also shortens lives and people today have more ways to stay in touch than previous generations did. But the biggest factor, she said, is the drop in tobacco use.

"We are really starting to see a narrowing of that now as generations that are not smoking as much," she said.  

Mildred Leadbeater, formerly of Cape Breton, N.S., is 101. She said she's looking forward to celebrating her 102nd birthday this coming June — an occasion that usually means a gift of scotch.

She said she only takes a small drink on weekends, never uses ice and never adds enough water to "drown it."

"The doctor from the clinic came to Cape Breton and he said, 'If you drink scotch, you'll live a long life and you won't have any ordinary ailments,'" she said from her daughter's home in Pembroke, Ont., where she now lives. "And I don't have any ordinary ailments and I've lived a long life. He told the truth."

Born in 1920, Leadbeater was the seventh child of Scottish immigrant parents in Glace Bay, N.S. She was a twin but her sister and mother died in childbirth; she herself was sickly as a newborn. Her dad, she said, found himself a single father of six children and ill-equipped to deal with a child who was not expected to live very long.

A neighbour offered to adopt Leadbeater and she grew up next door to her biological siblings, outliving them all and going on to be the mother of seven children herself.

Leadbeater said she believes her longevity was made possible by playing piano and keeping a positive attitude.