Veteran's Week 2006

General Statistics

Canada at War: Participation and Casualties*

South Africa War (1899-1902)
Approximately 7,000 Canadians served; 267 of them gave their lives.

First World War (1914-1918)
Approximately 650,000 Canadians served, including members of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, Canadians and Newfoundlanders who served with British forces (Newfoundland was a colony of Great Britain until 1949) and merchant mariners. Of this number, nearly 69,000 gave their lives.

Second World War (1939-1945)
More than one million Canadians and Newfoundlanders served in Canada's Armed Forces, in Allied forces or in the merchant navy; over 47,000 of them gave their lives.

Korean War (1950-1953)
26,791 Canadians served in the Canadian Army Special Force; 516 of them gave their lives.

Peacekeeping/Foreign Military Operations (as of March 2006)
Approximately 150,000 Canadians have served in peacekeeping missions/foreign military operations since 1947; more than 130 Canadians have given their lives in this service.

*Source: Books of Remembrance

* Estimated War Veteran Population as of March 2006

First World War
Veterans Affairs Canada is aware of 3 Veterans of the First World War. There may be other First World War Veterans alive today, though with an average age of 106 years, they would be few in number.

Second World War
219,761 (including 26,929 females); their average age is 83.

Korean War
14,228 (including 1,521 females); their average age is 74.

*The total male Second World War and Korean War Veteran population is based on the 1971 Census which posed the following question to men 35 years and over: "Did you have any wartime service in the active military forces of Canada or allied countries?" This estimate included members of the allied forces residing in Canada. The estimates of the Veteran population that the Census provided were since supplemented with a 1988 Statistics Canada Labour Force survey that validated the estimated number of male Veterans in 1988 based on mortality rates applied to Census figures. The survey also captured female Veterans. The information provided by the Census and the Labour Force Survey along with methods to age the estimates forward and apply mortality rates produces the current estimates of the Veteran population. These estimates are updated when Statistics Canada produces revised life tables. The last life tables were published in August 2002 for 1995-97 and were applied to Veteran estimates from the Census starting with the year 1998.