According to the Labour Force Survey (LFS) compiled by Statistics Canada, the number of Canadians who were active members of a registered pension plan (RPP) grew between 2022 and 2023. Notable among their findings is the fact that membership in defined benefit (DB) pension plans increased 4.2 per cent.
Overall, the number of Canadians who were active RPP members similarly grew 4.2 per cent to more than 7.2 million, while employment growth came in at 3.8 per cent during the same period. Membership in public sector plans rose 4.5 per cent, while private sector membership rose 3.9 per cent. “Employment rose by three per cent in the public sector and by four per cent in the private sector over the same period,” Statistics Canada states in its publication, Pension plans in Canada, as of January 1, 2024.
“Active membership in DB plans surpassed 4.9 million in 2023, up 4.2 per cent from 2022. Membership in DB plans accounted for 68.1 per cent of the total RPPs in 2023,” they add. Membership in defined contribution (DC) plans, meanwhile, accounting for just 18.6 per cent of all RPP membership in 2023 according to the report, rose 5.1 per cent.
In the private sector, DB plan membership increased 2.8 per cent while DC plan membership jumped 5.5 per cent.
Total employer and employee contributions to RPPs overall increased 3.8 per cent between 2022 and 2023, to reach $79.3-billion. “Employer contributions for unfunded liabilities represented 5.2 per cent (4.1-billion) of contributions,” they write. “The market value of assets in RPPs increased by $56-billion or 2.4 per cent, in 2023 to just under $2.4-trillion.”
