How old the capital is: the measured age of Canada's non-residential capital stock, and of its infrastructure, on two instruments

Investment changes the capital stock slowly; the stock itself carries a measurable age. Statistics Canada publishes that age twice, on two instruments this entry never merges. The capital-stock survey puts an average age on the non-residential capital of every industry from 2009 to 2024, on two price bases, and in 2024 the all-industries stock is as old as that survey has measured it on both. The Infrastructure Economic Accounts, a satellite account on the national accounts, carry the same question for infrastructure back to 1981, and their record is not a straight line: infrastructure aged to a 2004 peak and has been younger since, with the renewal running very unevenly across asset classes. This entry pins both records as published -- the ages, the turning points, and where the aging concentrates -- and attributes none of it. It states what the instruments measure; it does not say what the right age of a capital stock is, and it does not forecast any of these series.

A Resolution record holds one institution's own published figures for a single, specific quantity — a projection, an estimate, or a measured record — across every vintage in which that institution restated it. Each time an issuer publishes a new budget, report, or release, an earlier figure does not disappear from the record; it is preserved exactly as it was first published, dated and cited, alongside the newer one. What is a Resolution record? →

Maintained record. This lineage preserves an official record version by version — observations, estimates, or benchmarks its issuer restated over time. It projects nothing, so no settlement is pending; where a figure can still be revised, the page says so. How the numbers moved between versions is the evidence this lineage exists to keep.

The lineage

Vintage	Issuer	Published	Position	Source
Annual, reference years 2009 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Statistics Canada	2025-11-18	current	Source → · accessed 2026-08-02
Annual, reference years 2009 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Statistics Canada	2025-11-18	current	Source → · accessed 2026-08-02
Annual, reference years 2009 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Statistics Canada	2025-11-18	current	Source → · accessed 2026-08-02
Annual, reference years 2009 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Statistics Canada	2025-11-18	current	Source → · accessed 2026-08-02
Annual, reference years 2009 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Statistics Canada	2025-11-18	current	Source → · accessed 2026-08-02
Annual, reference years 2009 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Statistics Canada	2025-11-18	current	Source → · accessed 2026-08-02
Annual, reference years 2009 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Statistics Canada	2025-11-18	current	Source → · accessed 2026-08-02
Annual, reference years 1981 through 2025, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Statistics Canada	2026-06-12	current	Source → · accessed 2026-08-02
Annual, reference years 1981 through 2025, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Statistics Canada	2026-06-12	current	Source → · accessed 2026-08-02
Annual, reference years 1981 through 2025, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Statistics Canada	2026-06-12	current	Source → · accessed 2026-08-02
Annual, reference years 1981 through 2025, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Statistics Canada	2026-06-12	current	Source → · accessed 2026-08-02
Annual, reference years 1981 through 2025, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Statistics Canada	2026-06-12	current	Source → · accessed 2026-08-02

Vintage	Period	Value	Role	Assurance	Basis
Annual, reference years 2009 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Average age of the non-residential capital stock, all industries, 2009, at original prices	8.4 years	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 2009 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Average age of the non-residential capital stock, all industries, 2024, at original prices	9.2 years	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 2009 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	The same age at current prices, 2009	11.2 years	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 2009 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	The same age at current prices, 2024	11.6 years	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 2009 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Remaining useful service life ratio of the same stock, 2024, at original prices	63.4 ratio	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 2009 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	The same remaining-life ratio at current prices, 2024	55.8 ratio	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 2009 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Average age of mining, quarrying and oil and gas capital, 2014, at current prices	9.5 years	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 2009 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Average age of mining, quarrying and oil and gas capital, 2024	13.0 years	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 2009 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Average age of utilities' capital, 2009, at current prices	17.2 years	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 2009 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Average age of utilities' capital, 2024	15.0 years	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 2009 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Average age of machinery and equipment, all industries, 2009, at current prices	5.3 years	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 2009 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Average age of machinery and equipment, all industries, 2024	6.0 years	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 1981 through 2025, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Average age of Canada's infrastructure, 1981 -- the first year of the account	12.2 years	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 1981 through 2025, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Average age of Canada's infrastructure at its 2004 peak	15.5 years	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 1981 through 2025, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Average age of Canada's infrastructure, 2025	13.1 years	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 1981 through 2025, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Remaining useful life of Canada's infrastructure at its lowest published point, 2001	52.2 ratio	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 1981 through 2025, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Remaining useful life of Canada's infrastructure, 2025	59.5 ratio	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 1981 through 2025, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Average age of Canada's bridges at their 2000 peak	11.2 years	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 1981 through 2025, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Average age of Canada's bridges, 2025	9.1 years	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 1981 through 2025, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Average age of Canada's sewage infrastructure, 2025	16.8 years	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published
Annual, reference years 1981 through 2025, as published at capture on 2026-08-02	Average age of Canada's electric power infrastructure, 2025	15.3 years	institutional estimate	unaudited	as first published

Movement between vintages

A record, not a ranking: this entry states what was published and how it compares to what followed. It never says who was right, which institution performed better, or grades a forecaster's competence.

Comparison	Compared vintages	Movement	Basis
The stock's age at original prices: 2009 against 2024	Annual, reference years 2009 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02 (institutional estimate 8.4 years) vs. Annual, reference years 2009 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02 (institutional estimate 9.2 years)	+0.8 years	same issuer
The stock's age at current prices: 2009 against 2024	Annual, reference years 2009 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02 (institutional estimate 11.2 years) vs. Annual, reference years 2009 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02 (institutional estimate 11.6 years)	+0.4 years	same issuer
Mining, quarrying and oil and gas: the decade from the series' low	Annual, reference years 2009 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02 (institutional estimate 9.5 years) vs. Annual, reference years 2009 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02 (institutional estimate 13.0 years)	+3.5 years	same issuer
Utilities: 2009 against 2024	Annual, reference years 2009 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02 (institutional estimate 17.2 years) vs. Annual, reference years 2009 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02 (institutional estimate 15.0 years)	-2.2 years	same issuer
Machinery and equipment: 2009 against 2024	Annual, reference years 2009 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02 (institutional estimate 5.3 years) vs. Annual, reference years 2009 through 2024, as published at capture on 2026-08-02 (institutional estimate 6.0 years)	+0.7 years	same issuer
Infrastructure: from the 2004 peak to 2025	Annual, reference years 1981 through 2025, as published at capture on 2026-08-02 (institutional estimate 15.5 years) vs. Annual, reference years 1981 through 2025, as published at capture on 2026-08-02 (institutional estimate 13.1 years)	-2.4 years	same issuer
Infrastructure remaining life: from the 2001 low to 2025	Annual, reference years 1981 through 2025, as published at capture on 2026-08-02 (institutional estimate 52.2 ratio) vs. Annual, reference years 1981 through 2025, as published at capture on 2026-08-02 (institutional estimate 59.5 ratio)	+7.3 ratio	same issuer
Bridges: from the 2000 peak to 2025	Annual, reference years 1981 through 2025, as published at capture on 2026-08-02 (institutional estimate 11.2 years) vs. Annual, reference years 1981 through 2025, as published at capture on 2026-08-02 (institutional estimate 9.1 years)	-2.1 years	same issuer

Evidence qualifications (8)

Two instruments, never merged. The capital-stock survey (table 34-10-0166-01, 2009-2024, industry grain) and the Infrastructure Economic Accounts (table 36-10-0611-01, 1981-2025, a satellite account with its own asset list) measure age in different frames over different windows. No value from one is compared with, differenced against, or substituted for a value from the other anywhere in this entry, and the two records pointing in different directions over their own windows is stated as fact, not resolved as contradiction.
Two price bases, both published, both pinned. The capital-stock survey publishes every measure at original prices and at current prices, and the two bases give different levels and different movements. This entry pins the all-industries headline on both bases rather than choosing one; industry and asset detail is read at current prices, with the basis stated on every value.
An average age is a weighted average, and it moves for more than one reason. A stock's average age can rise because its assets aged and can fall because old assets left the stock or new ones entered it; the measure alone does not say which happened, and nothing here claims to know. A falling average age is not evidence of repair, and a rising one is not evidence of neglect.
The remaining-life measures are ratios on the issuer's own scale, compared only within their own series. The issuer publishes the remaining-useful-service-life measures as ratios; this entry states their published values and their movements and adds no interpretation of the scale, no threshold, and no judgment of what ratio a stock ought to carry.
The survey window is sixteen years and the account window is forty-five. When this entry says the 2024 business stock is as old as the survey has measured it, the claim reaches back to 2009 and no further; the infrastructure account's 1981-2025 window is the longer record and its turning points are dated within it. Neither window says anything about ages before it begins.
The all-industries total spans more than business capital. Table 34-10-0166-01's industry list includes the government sector and non-profit institutions, so the all-industries age is not a pure business-sector measure; the industry detail pinned here names its industries exactly. The infrastructure account likewise covers the account's asset classes wherever they are owned; no public-private split is stated anywhere in this entry.
Nothing in this entry explains the ages it records. Investment cycles, commodity prices, retirements, depreciation assumptions and reclassifications all bear on these measures, and this entry separates none of them. The mining industry's aging and the utilities' rejuvenation are stated as what the survey publishes, and attributed to nothing.
Every figure is as published at capture on 2026-08-02 and subject to the issuer's ordinary revision. Neither cube publishes a vintage archive of itself, so the pinned values cannot later be compared against what the same tables said on this date unless these bytes are kept -- which is why they are archived with their hashes.

Latest source: How old the capital is: the measured age of Canada's non-residential capital stock, and of its infrastructure, on two instruments · accessed 2026-08-02

Related on this site

This is the current public record for this lineage. See Work with Countability for a commissioned projection-resolution question.

Work with Countability