Retirement at the Turn of the Twentieth Century: A Canadian Perspective

Abstract

Abstract: In late-nineteenth-century North America, privately financed retirement emerged as a recognized phenomenon. While scholars acknowledge these origins, the prevalence of retirement remains intensely debated. The 1901 Canadian census explicitly required the enumerator to ask respondents if they had retired. The question makes it possible to correct estimates of labour force participation that are biased upward by the known tendency of men to report their lifelong occupation, even if they had retired. It also permits a separate consideration of this life stage well before formal retirement under public and private pension systems. An analysis of older men's responses from a 5 per cent sample of the 1901 Canadian census demonstrates that retirement was much more extensive than can be calculated from occupational reporting. While most older men reported an occupation and did not report retirement, over a fifth of those in their seventies and eighties reported an occupation but appear to have retired from it. Such a dual report was linked to greater age, being a farmer, urban status, and residence in Ontario. It was also associated with not owning property and a dependent status within households.