For the third year in a row, life expectancy at birth of Canadians fell, from 81.6 years in 2021 to 81.3 years in 2022 according to Statistics Canada.

From 2021 to 2022, life expectancy at birth declined in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba. In Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, where substantial declines were observed from 2020 to 2021, life expectancy at birth was essentially unchanged from 2021 to 2022.

Cancer and heart disease remained the two leading causes of death in Canada, accounting for 41.8% of deaths in 2022. In 2021, cancer and heart disease accounted for 44.3% of all deaths.

The number of COVID-19 deaths increased from 14,466 in 2021 to 19,716 in 2022, the highest number of such deaths recorded since the beginning of the pandemic. In 2022, the rate of COVID-19 deaths increased across all Canadian regions, except the Prairies (i.e., Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta). The largest increase was in Atlantic Canada, where the rate of COVID-19 deaths in 2022 (59.5 deaths per 100,000 population) was more than seven times higher than in 2021 (8.3 deaths).