Life expectancy for Canadians decreased for the third straight year in 2022, and more people died of COVID-19 than in any other year since the pandemic began, according to a report released Monday.

OTTAWA - Life expectancy for Canadians decreased for the third straight year in 2022, and more people died of COVID-19 than in any other year since the pandemic began, according to a report released Monday.

Statistics Canada's analysis of deaths(opens in a new tab) last year shows the average Canadian's life expectancy dropped to 81.3 years in 2022, a full year lower than the 82.3 years recorded in 2019.

COVID-19 became the third-leading cause of death for Canadians last year, overtaking accidents and unintentional injuries for the first time since the disease emerged in 2020.

“This increase may in part be due to the exposure to new highly transmissible COVID-19 variants and the gradual return to normalcy,” the report said, pointing to reduced restrictions and the elimination of masking requirements.

Cancer and heart disease were the first and second most common causes of mortality, accounting for 41.8 per cent of all deaths in 2022.

Mortality debt from the lockdowns.

  • TupamarosShakur [he/him]
    ·
    10 months ago

    One of the common refrains from 2020 that I remember is "case numbers don't matter, you have to look at death rate." Well, now that death rate has gone up, do you think any action will be taken by those who were so concerned with the death rate back then?

    Anyway, this is interesting. Do you know if there are any numbers out yet for the USA? I can only find 2021 numbers.

    • barrbaric [he/him]M
      ·
      10 months ago

      This has data for excess deaths up to October 2023 or so. You have to scroll to the right to find the US.

    • TheModerateTankie [any]
      ·
      10 months ago

      According to this article, life expectancy started going back up in 2022, so that's good.

      The CDC researchers said the increase in life expectancy would have been greater had there not been a rise in deaths from pneumonia and the flu, malnutrition, kidney disease, birth defects and perinatal deaths.

      Woolf said the slight increase in flu and pneumonia deaths seen in 2022 — which had the biggest impact on blunting life expectancy — isn’t something to be worried about. Rather, the numbers illustrate a rebound effect: Deaths from non-Covid viruses fell drastically due to masking and physical distancing during the first phase of the pandemic. “Now it’s really returning to normal levels,” he said.

      While the unintentional injury category — which saw a decrease — does include overdose deaths, Woolf noted there has not been a drop in these particular deaths, as the opioid epidemic rages on. Instead, he said it was a decrease in car accidents, which had increased nearly 7% during 2020, that caused the drop.

      • TupamarosShakur [he/him]
        ·
        10 months ago

        Yeah I ended up finding the statistics last night. it's interesting the US has seen the exact opposite trend as Canada, with life expectancy going up and Covid moving from the third to fourth leading cause of death.

        edit: Life expectancy: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsrr/vsrr031.pdf

        Leading causes of death: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7218a3.htm

        • TheModerateTankie [any]
          ·
          10 months ago

          They are either doing shenanigans with the data, or we are actually recovering from the huge toll covid took on the US in the first years. The acute stage of the disease is less dangerous thanks to vaccines. We'll see how things go over the next year, I guess.

          I am interested to see what happens to the other leading causes of death, since covid can make them all worse.

          • TupamarosShakur [he/him]
            ·
            10 months ago

            Yeah, is it possible our let it rip strategy just killed off the most vulnerable people in the US, whereas Australia and Canada had more protections in place (not sure about Canada but I know Australia did at least in the first year - also I can't imagine Canada had less protections than the US) that now that they've moved closer to the US "let it rip" strategy they're seeing more deaths, whereas we just decided to go let it rip from the start pretty much?

            Also I was reading yesterday that there's no standardized way to categorize leading causes of death. Maybe this has something to do with it? Not sure how U.S. statistics compare with Australian and Canadian statistics in that regard though so maybe not.

            I am interested to see what happens to the other leading causes of death, since covid can make them all worse.

            This is definitely what's being ignored in the data, even for Canada. Heart diseases are in the top two leading causes of death for all Australia, Canada and the U.S. We know Covid can cause heart disease, and the risk remains high for months after an infection. I don't believe there's really any way to prove Covid caused heart disease in terms of biomarkers or anything, but that possibility that not only is covid one of the top leading causes of death, but also it's contributing to many of the other leading causes of death seems to be ignored by all the data, unsurprisingly.