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Late midlife adults are one of Canada's largest yet most under-recognized and over-extended resources. They quietly of millions of , in person or from a distance.

From August 2024 to July 2025, Canada's late midlife adults—those between the ages of 55 and 64—collectively worked more than in a wide like retail, law, engineering and health care.

In addition, Statistics Canada estimates they're contributing , such as in . Late-to-midlife adults across Canada spent another 1.342 million hours doing .

Across Canada, baby boomers spent 1,219,000 hours of their 1,342,000 informal volunteer work hours directly helping family members like a parent or a sibling. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a good number were to their work week, whether in their own home or in a family member's.

Aging and caregiving

Both of us research population and individual aging. We have watched our own siblings feeling caught between supporting parents and supporting their children, deferring their own health needs in the process. This is no surprise, because about one in five midlife women are for an adult.

A typical caregiver has been providing for more than four years. Adding three more hours per week would put them at the tipping point for .

In today's economy, , as opposed to funding leisure and future retirement.

, full-time work isn't optional. For six out of 10 of them, neither is figuring out .

Research indicates four in 10 working caregivers . It is not hard to fathom why many caregivers start their day .

Elongated caregiving is on the rise on the home front as well. More young adult children . With persons 55–64 years of age holding in Canada, young adults are more likely to .

estimates that 18% of young adults self-identify with high anxiety and another 13% with depression while almost half worry about .

Canada's late midlife adults were also , more so than older Canadians, during the pandemic. They also and than older Canadians. Family conflicts and breakdowns were a , which other researchers identified as a risk factor for family conflicts, and even .

this demographic is unlikely to use community support services for things like meal preparation or fitness for themselves. Around one in four who needed health services had trouble accessing them. Others reported that they either . Research about how they stayed afloat during COVID-19 was lacking and remains largely absent.

How people look at aging

In his book about psychosocial development, , psychologist Erik Erikson remarked that historical change has the power to make people stop and rethink what old age looks like.

Across 20 countries, at age 60, had a great deal to do with how people see themselves aging.

Before COVID-19, we designed a study that surveyed . They were feeling most pessimistic about aging physically, including their state of health. When it came to loss, what resonated most was difficulty making friends and seeing "old age" as a depressing time.

For these 50-somethings, being caught between helping younger generations and tending to their own growth was detrimental to self-confidence. Making time for activities that help people learn about and see good in themselves is .

In the , late midlife adults are looking at an uncertain future. Statistics tell us that poor health as early as age 71, and their own demise around age 81.

Recent surveys further reveal they're and are worried about household essentials, with . Some even link with older adults' increasing debt loads.

Meanwhile, federal funding priorities focus on and on raising ' awareness of older people's support needs.

Late midlife adults represent one of our nation's major resources, given the socioeconomic and health-related roles they play as caregivers to young and old. But resources can become depleted: they need care, respect and sensitivity themselves in order to continue in those roles.

It's time to ask late midlife Canadians about the burdens they're carrying, if the load is becoming too heavy, and how they are managing the load. This is a conversation well worth having.

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