Excess mortality in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 has had and continues to have a clear impact on communities and families across the country. Many have lost family members and friends to the pandemic. In terms of lives lost, the toll of the COVID-19 pandemic should account for both the direct and indirect effects of the virus. Excess mortality, which occurs when there are more deaths during a period of time than what would be typical for that period, is one key measure that accounts for these effects. Statistics Canada used provisional data on deaths in Canada to produce provisional death estimates, which have been adjusted to account for the incomplete nature of the data due to reporting delays. These are in turn used with a measure of the number of deaths that would be expected to be observed were there no pandemic to produce an estimate of excess mortality. The provincial and territorial results are discussed.