TORONTO (Reuters) - The reality of retirement in Canada is a lot closer to what people had imagined than it is in the US, a survey released last week says.

In Canada, nearly 70 percent of retirees say their post-working life is exactly, or mostly, what they thought it would be, the survey by TD Bank Financial Group, North America's No. 6 bank by number of branches, found.

In the United States, that number falls to under 50 percent.

The timing of the survey of 1,002 retired Canadians and 1,009 retired Americans, done by Angus Reid Public Opinion between January 12 to 18, likely had a lot to do with the results, said Frank McKenna, deputy chairman at TD and former Canadian ambassador to the United States.

"The US has been going through a much greater period of anxiety than in Canada, between the overall depth of the recession, the level of unemployment, and particularly the stress on the housing market," he said. "Canada has experienced all of those impacts, but to a much lesser extent."

The survey found that one in four American retirees were worried they might run out of money, double the response in Canada. Of American respondents, 28 percent said they may have to find another job to supplement their retirement income, compared with 10 percent of Canadians.

Thirty-eight percent of Americans thought they definitely did not save enough money for retirement, versus 21 percent of Canadians. And 21 percent of Americans were worried they did not start saving early enough, compared with 10 percent of Canadians.

Respondents on both sides of the border — 32 percent in America and 28 percent in Canada — said one of their biggest mistakes in planning for retirement was that they didn't start saving until they were over 40 years old.

On the flip side, they listed the smartest things they did as working for a company with a matching retirement savings plan or pension plan, and living within their means.