A drop in life expectancy—both nationally and provincially—can be attributed to the pandemic, but if COVD-related deaths were left out of the equation, life expectancy in Newfoundland and Labrador is still lower than the national average.
According to Statistics Canada, average life expectancy across Canada dropped every year from 82.29 in 2019, to 81.34 in 2022.
In this province, average life expectancy dropped from 80.01 in 2019 to 78.76 in 2022.
Deputy Minister for Health Transformation, and one of the architects of the NL Health Accord, Dr. Pat Parfrey says based on the stats, a pattern started to emerge.
Parfrey says while the stats are largely driven by COVID, even when the pandemic is factored-out, life expectancy in NL is still lower than the national average, mostly due to chronic disease like heart disease, stroke and cancer which he says can be directly linked to healthy living and the social determinants of health.
