Elderly continue to account for most hospital use

Historically, the elderly (65 and over) accounted for a large proportion of the total hospital days in Canada. Of the 33.9 million hospital days in 1996/97, the elderly accounted for 62% (or 20.9 million days), although they represented only 12% of the population that year.

As the number of people aged 65 and over and their share of the total population continue to increase over the next several decades, total hospital bed requirements, especially including long-term care, are expected to increase.

Source: Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI),

www.cihi.ca and Statistics Canada, www.statcan.ca.