Survey finds most Canadians don’t think they will ever be able to retire

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As Canada’s population continues to age, an increasing number of Canadians are examining their finances and weighing retirement options, but a majority of those who have yet to retire don’t believe they will ever be able to, according to a new survey.

On Tuesday, the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP), in partnership with Abacus Data, released the findings of its seventh annual Canadian Retirement Survey, which was conducted in April.

The survey found that among unretired respondents, 59 per cent believe they will never be in a financial position to retire, while 66 per cent believe they’ll need to continue working even if they do retire to support themselves financially.

Many Canadians simply don’t have the means to save for retirement, the survey found. Sixty per cent of respondents reported having no disposable income, with all the money they earn going directly to necessities.

The survey also found that 49 per cent of respondents had not set aside any money for retirement in the past year, while 39 per cent reported having never saved for retirement.

Canadians’ inability to save for retirement is due to a variety of factors including day-to-day living costs, economic uncertainty, inflation, housing affordability and cuts to government healthcare services, according to the survey respondents.

Fifty-five per cent of Canadians described their financial situation as living paycheque to paycheque, up from 48 per cent in the same survey in 2023.

Homeownership

Amongst unretired people, the survey found that there was a stark difference when it came to saving for retirement between those that owned their home and those that didn’t.

It found that 71 per cent of homeowners had set aside money for retirement at some point, compared to only 36 per cent of non-homeowners, the majority of whom reported having never done so.

Sixty-two per cent of survey respondents said they viewed homeownership as a “key part” of their retirement strategy, and half of unretired homeowners plan to set themselves up for retirement by selling their property, according to the survey.

But for those who have yet to retire and currently have a mortgage, the survey found that 65 per cent of them are worried about their ability to pay it off so they can retire when they plan to. That’s up from 51 per cent in 2024 and 45 per cent in 2023.

The survey also found that 66 per cent of mortgage holders have either seen their mortgage payments rise in the last year or expect them to in the next 12 months.

The vast majority of non-homeowners – 84 per cent – worry about the rising cost of rent, and for 66 per cent of them, paying rent is their top financial priority.

Geopolitics and Canada-U.S. relations

The survey found that Canadians are also concerned about the ongoing trade war with the U.S. and global geopolitical instability.

Sixty-seven per cent of respondents said they were “very concerned” with the state of U.S.-Canada relations. Concern over the impact of the trade war between the two countries is highest amongst seniors, but was also one of the top economic worries for Canadians aged 55 to 64.

The implications of U.S. tariffs and prolonged global conflicts have also changed how some Canadians are managing their finances. The survey found that 22 per cent of respondents were putting aside more savings as a result of geopolitical instability.

In a press release discussing the survey’s findings, the CEO of Abacus Data said giving more Canadians access to pensions is one of the best ways to protect against uncertainty.

“When Canadians are feeling even more uncertain about the future as they are now, pensions can offer more certainty about the future,” said David Coletto.

“Policy makers and employers should be taking a closer look at this now, more than ever.”

Methodology

Findings are based on an online survey of 2,000 Canadians aged 18 and older from April 11 to 16, 2025. A random sample of panelists was invited to complete the survey from a set of partner panels based on the Lucid exchange platform.

These partners typically use double opt-in survey panels, blended to reduce potential skews in the data from a single source.

The margin of error for a comparable probability-based random sample of the same size is +/- 2.19%, 19 times out of 20. The margin of error will be larger for data that is based on sub-groups of the total sample.