The number of Canadians with a workplace or union-sponsored pensions appears to be on the rise in Canada, despite ongoing concerns about the ability to retire comfortably.

Statistics Canada

released its latest figures Tuesday, which covers the 12-month period through January 1, 2024, and they show a 4.2 per cent increase in active membership in

registered pension plans. 

More than 7.2 million Canadians had either a defined benefit, defined contribution or hybrid pension in 2023, an increase of 293,500 from the year before.

The increase in percentage terms exceeded the period’s growth in employment, which rose by only 3.8 per cent.

 

Plan membership in the public sector edged out growth in the private sector, at 4.5 per cent and 3.9 per cent, respectively. This was despite the fact that employment growth was higher in the private sector, at four per cent compared to three per cent in the private sector.

Defined benefit plans, which promise a specified payment based on a formula including the employee’s age, earnings and years of service rather than one that relies solely on individual investments returns, continue to make up around two-thirds of employer and union-sponsored pensions in Canada.

 

Membership in DB plans grew by 4.2 per cent in 2023, while the share of defined-benefit plans as a percentage of overall pension membership was flat at 68.1 per cent.

Defined contribution plans, where retirement benefits are not guaranteed and rely on the size of the investment pot at retirement, also added members in the latest period. Members ship growth by 65,300 members, or 4.1 per cent compared with 2022. Most members of this type of plan, which hasn’t been around for as long as DB pensions, work in the private sector.

About 13 per cent of pension membership in Canada doesn’t fall into the strict category or either defined benenfit or defined contribution. These pensions are hybrid, composite or combination plans, according to Statistics Canada.

  • Pension conference relocates to Canada
  • Ontario Teachers’ to shut Hong Kong office

Manitoba was the only province to show a decrease in combined pension membership in 2023, with a decline of 1,300. The largest number of new memberships was in Ontario, with 161,800, followed by Quebec with 54,800.

A perhaps surprising statistic is that women represented the highest pension membership across the country, with a 51.3 per cent share in 2023, according to Statistics Canada.