Project

NORCs

Naturally occurring retirement communities (NORCs) are regular residential buildings that have become home to a high density of older adults.

What is a NORC?

A Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (NORC) is a geographic designation describing areas with a natural density of seniors. Since 2015, OpenLab has explored how NORCs might support aging-in-place, and this work has become its own multi-arm project: the NORC Innovation Centre.

The Need

Throughout most of the 20th century, older adults were a fairly small proportion of the Canadian population, and most did not live in cities. Today, older Canadians represent the fastest growing segment of the population, and most live in major urban centres. In 2016, 4 million Canadian seniors (66 percent) live in census metropolitan areas, a number that has risen 21 percent from just five years earlier, and is expected to intensify over the next two decades as the seniors population doubles in size.

Sources 

Canadian Institute on Healthcare Improvement. Seniors in Transition. Exploring Pathways Across the Care Continuum. CIHI (2019). 

Government of Canada, S. C. Census Profile, 2016 Census - Toronto, City [Census subdivision],   Ontario and Ontario [Province]. https://tinyurl.com/ycytk4u9

National Seniors Council. Report on the Social Isolation of Seniors, 2013-2014. https://www.canada.ca/en/national-seniors-council/programs/publications-reports/2014/social-isolation-seniors.html (2014).

Behind The Solution: Seniors Empowering Seniors

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