Highlights

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Overview
Sex differences
Age patterns
Geographic differences
Footnotes

The methodology used in this publication to select the leading causes of death was developed by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) of the U.S Department of Health and Human Service¹.

Overview

• In 2005, the 10 leading causes of death in Canada were the same as the previous year, accounting for 78% of all deaths, a decrease of about one percentage point from 2004. Cancer, heart disease and stroke, the three leading causes of death, were responsible for 58% of all deaths in Canada.
  
  
• From 2004 to 2005, the relative burden of deaths due to unintentional injuries had the largest increase (6%), followed by Chronic lower respiratory diseases (5%) and Alzheimer’s disease (4%). In contrast, the relative burden of stroke had the sharpest decline (-4%).
  
  
• From 2001 to 2005, the number of deaths increased as Canadian population aged, but mortality rates decreased. The age–standardized mortality rates² dropped sharply for stroke (20%), followed by heart disease (15%) and cancer (5%) in the same period.

 Table 1 – Ten leading Causes of death, Canada, 2004 and 2005.

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Sex differences

• The proportional representation of the 10 leading causes of death was higher for males compared to females. In 2005, the relative burden of the 10 leading causes of male deaths was 80% compared to 77% of female deaths.
  
  
• From 2004 to 2005, the ranking of the three leading causes of death—cancer, heart disease, and stroke—remained unchanged for females. However, unintentional injuries placed third as leading cause of male deaths in 2005, mainly due to the increase in the number deaths (7%) combined with a decrease of deaths due to stroke (-3%).
  
  
• In 2005, hypertension emerged as a 10^th leading cause of death for females. Between 2001 and 2005, female deaths due to hypertension increased in importance by climbing from the 17^th leading cause of female deaths to the 10^th.
  
  
• In 2005, the largest difference in the ranking between the sexes was for hypertension (19^th for males and 10^th for females), Alzheimer’s disease (10^th for males and 5^th for females), suicide (7^th for males and 12^th for females) and unintentional injuries (3^rd for males and 7^th for females).
  
  
• From 2004 and 2005, among the 10 leading causes of deaths, the largest relative increase for males was for unintentional injuries followed by Alzheimer’s disease, suicide and Chronic lower respiratory diseases, whereas for females it was hypertension, Chronic lower respiratory diseases and Influenza and pneumonia.

 Table 2 – Ten leading causes of death, males, Canada, 2004 and 2005.

 Table 3 – Ten leading causes of death, females, Canada, 2004 and 2005.

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Age patterns

• The proportional representation of the 10 leading causes of death in 2005 varied among age groups. The heaviest relative burden was for those aged 55 to 64 and 15 to 24 with 85% of all deaths. Deaths due to the 10 leading causes were the least concentrated for the youngest and the oldest, those aged 1 to 14 (70%) followed by 85 and over (76%).
  
  
• In 2005, the ranking of the first and second leading causes of death remained the same as in 2004 across age groups.
  
  
• For those aged 1 to 44 years, unintentional injuries or suicide or both were the two leading causes of death in 2005, they were responsible for 42% of deaths.
  
  
• For those aged 45 and over, cancer and heart disease were the two leading causes of death, their relative burden was 54% in 2005.
  
  
• For those aged 55 to 64, unintentional injuries ranked as the third leading cause of death in 2005, displacing diabetes to the fourth rank.
  
  
• For those aged 85 and older, Chronic lower respiratory diseases emerged from the sixth in 2004 to the fourth rank in 2005, displacing Alzheimer’s disease and Influenza and pneumonia.
  
  
• For those aged 25 to 34, HIV emerged from seventh in 2004 to the sixth leading cause of death in 2005 displacing congenital anomalies. Cerebrovascular diseases also emerged from ninth to seventh rank, displacing congenital anomalies and diabetes.
  
  
• For those aged 35 to 44, liver disease ranked 6^th in 2005 outranked Cerebrovascular diseases to the 7^th rank while Influenza and pneumonia ranked 10^th displacing congenital anomalies.

 Table 4 – Ranking and number of deaths for the 10 leading causes by age group, Canada, 2005.

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Geographic differences

• The relative burden of the 10 leading causes of death in 2005 varied among the provinces and territories. The heaviest relative burden was for Nunavut with 90% of all deaths followed by Yukon (85%). The Atlantic provinces (Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick), Quebec and Ontario had a relative burden higher than the national level of 78%. For the Western provinces (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia) and Northwest Territories the relative burden was lower than the national level.
  
  
• Cancer was still the leading causes of death for all provinces and territories in 2005, except for Prince Edward Island, where it ranked second.
  
  
• With the exception of Prince Edward Island, heart disease was the second leading causes of death for all provinces and Yukon in 2005.
  
  
• In the Northwest Territories, unintentional injuries emerged from the fourth rank in 2004 to the second in 2005 displacing heart disease and suicide. Compared to 2004, suicide was still the second leading cause of death for Nunavut.
  
  
• In 2005, unintentional injuries emerged in higher ranks in three provinces and one territory, but dropped in ranks in Prince Edward Island and Nunavut.
  
  
• Chronic Lower respiratory diseases also moved up in rank in Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and in the three territories in 2005.

 Table 5 – Share of 10 leading causes of death by geography, 2005.

Footnotes

1.Heron, M. Deaths: Leading Causes of Death for 2004. National Vital Statistics Reports (National Center for Health Statistics) 2007; 56 (5).

2. Age–standardized mortality rate eliminates the effect of changes in population structure over time, thus the comparison of these mortality rates will reflect the actual changes in mortality.