/ Economic inequality

Thriving in the City: What does it cost to have a healthy retirement?

• Seong-gee Um and Kwame McKenzie

As part of the Wellesley Institute Thriving in the City suite of work, A Framework for Income and Health in Retirement  highlighted the many facets of good health for older adults: eating healthy foods and staying physically active, connecting with family and friends, continuing to learn new skills, contributing to ones’ community, and managing emerging health care needs throughout the aging process. It describes an evidence-based framework of eight domains required to support an individual’s physical, mental, and social health and well-being.

This report builds on the framework by exploring the cost of thriving in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) after retirement. The domains included in the initial framework have been further developed to include an itemized list of resources, goods, and services with corresponding estimated costs. Together the framework and the corresponding costs inform what it means, and how much it costs, to thrive during retirement.

This work offers a foundation for understanding the health needs of older adults, and provides a starting point for a broader conversation about policies, programs, and supports that older adults in the GTA need to thrive.

Thriving Retirement: What does it cost to have a healthy retirement?Download
Seong-gee Um

Seong-gee Um

Seong-gee Um was a researcher at Wellesley Institute from 2015 to 2021. She received her PhD from the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto and has worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Prentice Institute for Global Population and Economy at the University of Lethbridge. Her research interests lie in the areas of inequality, immigration, and health and social care. Her work explores social policy responses to emerging social risks and how they shape the experiences of vulnerable and disadvantaged populations.

Kwame McKenzie

Kwame McKenzie

Dr. Kwame McKenzie is CEO of Wellesley Institute, which works in research and policy to improve health and health equity in the Greater Toronto Area. A practicing psychiatrist, he also holds positions as a full Professor at the University of Toronto and as the Director of Health Equity at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). As an international expert on the social causes of illness and the development of equitable social policy and health systems, Dr. McKenzie has advised health, housing, education and social services ministers in Canada and the U.K. and has authored more than 280 peer reviewed papers and six books. He is a member of the National Advisory Council on Poverty, and recently co-chaired Canada’s Expert Task Force on Substance Use. He has also worked as a consultant to the World Health Organization. Dr. McKenzie has been a columnist for The Guardian and The Times and a presenter for BBC Radio, and he is regularly published in the Toronto Star.