The average age of sewers has increased steadily since 1987, when it was 13.4 years. In 2007, the age has reached 18.4 years. However, sewers are relatively much newer now in the province than they were in the 1960s. As a percentage of estimated useful life, the gap with the national average, which was around a disadvantaging 20 percentage points for the province in the 1960s, has been reduced considerably by 2007. The 2007 rates were 55% in the province compared to 53% nationally.