The majority of deaths now occur at older ages

The pyramid of deaths by age in 1926 and 2011 illustrates major changes in the profile of mortality in Canada. The number of deaths of children less than one year of age was much higher in 1926—despite a smaller population—than in 2011. Higher child mortality at ages one to four in 1926 also led to more deaths for this age group early last century than in 2011.
The vast majority of deaths recorded in 2011 were concentrated after age 50. In 2011, the greatest number of deaths was registered at age 85 for men and 89 for women.
This important change is due in part to the remarkable progress made in the field of living conditions, public sanitation and medicine, which has led to a sizable reduction in the early childhood mortality. The main causes of death in Canada’s population have generally evolved away from infectious diseases, which often affect children, toward degenerative diseases and cancer, which tend to affect older people.
Observed for the first time in the data available since 1926, there were about the same number of female and male deaths in Canada in 2011.

Language selection