Life expectancy in Canada fell for the 3rd year in a row. What’s happening?

Statistics Canada released new data showing that the life expectancy at birth of Canadians fell, to 81.3 years in 2022 from 81.6 years in 2021. 

For the third year in a row life expectancy has declined in Canada, a trend experts consider to be historical, indicating a worrisome downturn in our overall health.

Statistics Canada released its report Deaths, 2022 on Monday, showing that the life expectancy of Canadians fell to 81.3 years in 2022 from 81.6 years in 2021.  The decline was more prominent among females than men, the data showed.

“This is the first time this has ever happened,” Dr. Doug Manuel, a senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, told Global News. “We’ve hardly had any declines, we have had a recession, but never like this, not three years in a row. It’s a pretty big event.”

“This is a measure of how our health is doing as Canadians. And it means that we’re doing worse.”

There were 334,623 deaths in Canada in 2022, an increase of 7.3 per cent from 2021.

One major reason that Canada’s life expectancy rate fell for three consecutive years, is due to the COVID-19 pandemic that brought the world to a screeching halt in March 2020, according to Patrice Dion, an analyst at Statistics Canada.

However, he believes there are other factors at play as well.

In 2022, there was an increase in deaths for older ages, which is mostly linked to COVID-19, Dion explained. But there has also been an increase in death rates among younger adults over the last few years, which he believes may be linked to the opioid crisis in Canada.