Statistics Canada
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Life expectancy
- In 2006, life expectancy at birth was 80.8 years, an increase of 0.4 year from 2005.
- From 2005 to 2006, the male life expectancy at birth gained 0.4 year from 78.0 to 78.4 years, while the female’s gained 0.3 year, from 82.7 to 83.0 years.
- Life expectancy at age 65 was 19.9 years in 2006: 18.2 years for males and 21.4 years for females.
- In 2006, life expectancy at birth in three large provinces exceeded the national average of 80.8 years. British Columbia led with 81.4 years, followed by Ontario (81.1 years) and Quebec (80.9 years).
- From 2001 to 2006, life expectancy at birth rose by 1.2 years, from 79.6 to 80.8 years. During this period, life expectancy for men increased by 1.4 years, whereas life expectancy for women advanced by 0.9. As a result, the gender gap narrowed by 0.5 year from 5.1 years in 2001 to 4.6 years in 2006.
Annual number of deaths
- In 2006, a total of 228,079 deaths were registered in Canada. From 2005 to 2006, the number of deaths was down 0.9%, the largest decrease since 1981.
- From 1981 to 2006, the number of deaths rose 33%. In this 25-year time span, the annual number of deaths recorded an overall upward trend with the exception of years 2000 and 2006.
Crude Mortality rates
- In 2006, Canada’s crude death rate was 7.0 per 1,000 population, down 1.4% from 2005.
- In 2006, crude death rates ranged from a low of 4.2 per 1,000 population in Nunavut to a high of 9.2 per 1,000 population in Saskatchewan.
- Northwest Territories had the largest rise in crude death rates (0.8) and Quebec (-0.3) registered the largest decline.
Infant deaths and mortality
- The number of infant deaths decreased 4.9% from 1,863 in 2005 to 1,771 in 2006.
- From 2005 to 2006, the number of male infant deaths dropped 4.6% while for females it decreased by 5.4%.
- During the same period, infant mortality rate declined 7.4% from 5.4 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2005 to 5.0 in 2006.
- Between 2005 and 2006, the male infant mortality rate dropped from 5.9 to 5.4 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, while the female rate declined from 5.0 to 4.6 infant deaths per 1,000 live births.
