More Than Half (55%) Of Canadian Adults 18 to 35 Are Not Planning To Contribute To An RRSP For 2002

Toronto, ONTARIO (Thursday, February 27th, 2003) ) - According to the 12th Annual Ipsos-Reid/RBC poll, more than half (55%) of Canadians aged 18-34 said they were not planning to contribute to their retirement savings in 2002. This represents an increase of 10 percentage points over 2001. The major reasons cited by 18 to 34 year olds for not contributing to their retirement savings this year include: not having enough money to contribute (35 per cent); haven't thought about it or gotten around to it (9 per cent); and not interested (11 per cent). Eleven per cent of this age group do not plan on contributing due to either being a student or having student loans. Seven per cent of Canadians between the ages of 18 to 34 consider themselves as too young to contribute to an RRSP.

The poll also found that more than half (56%) of Canadians aged 18 to 34 do not have a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP), and a growing number may sit on the bench again this year.

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos-Reid/RBC poll conducted by telephone between November 7th and November 24, 2002. The poll is based on a randomly selected sample of 1,200 Canadians 18 years of age or older. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 177 2.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to 2001 Census data.

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For more information on this survey, please contact:

Harriet Shenken
Vice-President
Ipsos-Reid
(416) 324-2900