TORONTO – Canadians’ life expectancy fell for the third consecutive year in 2022 and more people died from Covid-19 than in any year since the pandemic began, according to a report released on Monday by Statistics Canada (you can consult the whole report by clicking here). The average Canadian life expectancy fell to 81.3 years in 2022, a full year lower than the 82.3 years recorded in 2019. “Life expectancy decreases when there are more deaths, when deaths occur at younger ages, or when a combination of both occurs,” the report explains. 

Covid-19 became the third leading cause of death for Canadians last year, surpassing accidents and unintentional injuries for the first time since the disease emerged in 2020. “This increase may be partly due to exposure to new, highly transmissible Covid-19 variants and the gradual return to normality,” the report said, highlighting the reduction of restrictions and the elimination of masking requirements.

However, cancer and heart disease were the first and second most common causes of mortality, accounting for 41.8% of all deaths in 2022.

Going into provincial details, we note that New Brunswick recorded the largest decline in life expectancy among all Canadian provinces, falling in more than a year to 79.8 years from 80.9 in 2021. Saskatchewan’s life expectancy has declined the most over the past three years combined, falling two full years to 78.5 in 2022 from 80.5 in 2019.

It was Covid-19, we were saying, that caused these surges, alongside the most frequent causes of death such as cancer and heart disease. More than 19,700 Canadians died of Covid-19 last year. Older adults have borne the brunt of the increase, with those aged 80 and older seeing a 78% increase in coronavirus deaths last year compared to the year before. And people aged 65 and older accounted for 91.4% of all Covid-19 deaths in 2022, the report said.

In Atlantic Canada, the rate of deaths from Covid-19 was more than seven times higher last year than the year before — the highest jump in any region of the country, again according to data from Statistics Canada.

As for young people, the increase in deaths last year was partly attributable to deaths investigated by a medical examiner, which typically include suicides, homicides and drug toxicity deaths.

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