Health of Canadians
A methodological note to readers

The health indicators presented in this report were selected based on several criteria, including whether they

1. have been identified as key population health indicators by Statistics Canada subject-matter experts, environmental and media scans, and international and national health indicator frameworks
2. allow for systematic disaggregation of data across key population groups identified in Statistics Canada’s Disaggregated Data Action Plan
3. are informative for the Canadian public and Statistics Canada’s partners and stakeholders interested in health.

Data included in this report come from the following Statistics Canada sources:

• Canadian Cancer Registry
• Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS)
• Canadian COVID-19 Antibody and Health Survey
• Canadian Health Measures Survey
• Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth, longitudinal component
• Canadian Income Survey
• Canadian Oral Health Survey
• Canadian Social Survey
• Canadian Vital Statistics – Birth database (CVSB)
• Canadian Vital Statistics – Death database (CVSD)
• Canadian Vital Statistics – Stillbirth database (CVSS)
• Canadian Wastewater Survey
• Census of Population
• Indigenous Peoples Survey  
• Mental Health and Access to Care Survey.

The CVSB, CVSS and CVSD are administrative surveys that collect demographic and medical information on all births, stillbirths (fetal deaths) and deaths in Canada from all provincial and territorial vital statistics registries. The provinces and territories provide these data to Statistics Canada at different times. Consequently, they are subject to annual revisions to incorporate new and updated information received from the provinces and territories. The information presented in this report reflects the versions of the CVSB and CVSS released on September 25, 2024, and the CVSD released on February 19, 2025.

The inaugural 2023 Health of Canadians report used data from the 2015 to 2021 cycles of the CCHS, which included individuals aged 12 and older. In this updated report, the focus shifted to data from the 2022 and 2023 CCHS cycles, now covering the population aged 18 and older. Consequently, all data were reanalyzed to examine this age group and allow for a comparison of findings from 2015 to 2023.

Unless otherwise specified, the analysis of indicators in this report is based on data from the 2023 CCHS, which was conducted from January 3 to December 31, 2023. The sample is representative of Canadians aged 18 and older living in the provinces (excluding people living on reserves and other Indigenous settlements, full-time members of the Canadian Forces, the institutionalized population, and people living in some health regions of Quebec). Altogether, these exclusions represent less than 3% of the Canadian population aged 18 and older. The 2023 CCHS did not include a design to represent the entire population of the territories; however, data for these areas will be incorporated when the combined CCHS data for 2023 and 2024 are released in 2025. Therefore, the territorial data presented in this report are drawn from the 2022 CCHS.

The 2023 cycle of the CCHS included a targeted oversample to enhance coverage for racialized groups, Indigenous peoples and people with disabilities, as part of the Disaggregated Data Action Plan. All breakdowns presented in this report, unless otherwise noted, are unadjusted for any factors that might explain the differences between groups. Consequently, any observed differences may be attributable to other factors once adjustments are made. The intention of this report is to highlight statistically significant differences—that is, those that are not thought to have occurred by chance—that can be further investigated. When two estimates are described as different in this report, the difference is statistically significant at a 95% confidence level (p-value less than 5%).

Unless otherwise specified, the annual estimates for provinces are compared with the estimate for Canada (excluding the territories). Territorial estimates are compared with the estimate for all of Canada (for 2022 only). The word “prevalence” is often used, referring to the percentage or proportion of a particular behaviour or disease within a specific population at a given time. For example, the prevalence of diabetes among adults in Canada in 2023 indicates how many adults in the provinces or territories had been diagnosed with diabetes at that time.