{"id":43167,"date":"2017-01-25T15:36:48","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T19:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=43167"},"modified":"2017-01-25T15:51:04","modified_gmt":"2017-01-25T19:51:04","slug":"niagaras-population-retention-efforts-need-to-focus-on-a-wider-age-range-researchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2017\/01\/niagaras-population-retention-efforts-need-to-focus-on-a-wider-age-range-researchers\/","title":{"rendered":"Niagara\u2019s population retention efforts need to focus on a wider age range: researchers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Contrary to popular belief, the population of 20-somethings in Niagara is increasing, so efforts to attract and keep young people in the region need to be extended to more age groups, new Brock University-led research shows.<\/p>\n<p>Youth attraction initiatives in communities tend to focus on those in the 20-29 age bracket. However, the Niagara population of people in their 20s has actually grown over the past 15 years, says the latest Niagara Community Observatory brief, titled <em>Growing Niagara: A closer look at Niagara\u2019s aging population.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The details of the brief were released Tuesday at a public presentation held at White Oaks Conference Resort and Spa in Niagara-on-the-Lake.<a href=\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/AgingInfographic.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright wp-image-43168\" src=\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/AgingInfographic-300x350.png\" alt=\"aginginfographic\" width=\"400\" height=\"466\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThough our growth is less than what was seen at the provincial level, this is the only area where we don&#8217;t have population losses, perhaps due to our post-secondary institutions,\u201d says the brief, co-written by Carol Phillips at the NCO and Adam Durrant from the Niagara Workforce Planning Board.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the numbers of people aged 30-44 and 0-14 living in Niagara have dropped over the years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAssuming the latter are typically the children of the former, this illustrates the extent to which Niagara is not replacing its aging population,\u201d says the brief. \u201cThis suggests that the focus of youth retention and attraction should be broadened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The brief provides closer examination of population numbers in Niagara, focusing on its age characteristics.<\/p>\n<p>Highlights include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>8 per cent of Niagara\u2019s population is 65 years and older while 15.5 per cent of its population is 14 and under<\/li>\n<li>The Regional Municipality of Niagara has a median age of 44.1 years, compared to 40.4 years in Ontario and 40.6 years in Canada<\/li>\n<li>Niagara\u2019s 2011 population of 431,346 was a 0.9 per cent increase over 2006 compared to national population growth of 5.9 per cent<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cAs Niagara\u2019s decision-makers look for ways to improve our community\u2019s economic prosperity in the coming years, it\u2019s vital they get the information they need,\u201d says Phillips. \u201cOur goal with this brief is simply to provide a piece of that information.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Niagara Regional Council set its Strategic Priorities Implementation Plan in 2015 to increase the region\u2019s \u201cglobal attractiveness\u201d and improve its economic prosperity. Attracting and retaining a younger skilled labour force is part of that strategy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe focus on age of population in this brief,\u201d says Phillips. \u201cOur numbers suggest young families are leaving. The next step is to identify why they are leaving.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIntuition tells me that as they move up in their careers, they move on to better jobs outside of the region and don\u2019t want to commute too far. But that needs further research.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A 2016 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.moneysense.ca\/canadas-best-places-to-live-2016-full-ranking\/\" target=\"_blank\">MoneySense article ranked St. Catharines 139 out of 219<\/a> cities in a survey of Best Places to Live in Canada. Niagara Falls was No. 152 and Welland ranked No. 177. It looked at quality of life indicators such as incomes and unemployment rate, crime, taxes, transit, walkable neighbourhoods and the vibrancy of the sports and arts community.<\/p>\n<p>This new brief discusses some of the strategies being used in other communities, such as job programs, improved amenities, and better websites.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no simple or single solution to addressing demographic challenges,\u201d says Durrant.\u00a0\u201cPopulation changes at a local level require very long-range planning and a range of ongoing efforts to support multiple age groups that can lay the foundation for the future we would like to build.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Contrary to popular belief, the population of 20-somethings in Niagara is increasing, so efforts to attract and keep young people in the region need to be extended to more age groups, new Brock University led research shows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":33916,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3319,1,4,5],"tags":[4826,63,617,2417],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43167"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43167"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43170,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43167\/revisions\/43170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}