Abstract:

Investigates change in the residential segregation of persons age 65+ from younger persons in Canadian census metropolitan areas (CMAs) in 1981 & 1991. In each CMA, age segregation was first evaluated in terms of inner-city vs suburban population distributions, & then according to degree of segregation across census tracts expressed by the Index of Dissimilarity. Although the CMAs typically had moderate segregation levels in both 1981 & 1991, there were consistent trends toward (1) increasing proportions of the elderly living in suburban areas, & (2) declining degrees of age segregation across census tracts. It is proposed that these trends are partly attributable to the aging in place of suburban residents. Correlation & regression analyses indicate that lower degrees of segregation were associated with CMAs in 1991, which had relatively high %s of both older dwellings & elderly population. Policy implications are discussed.