Life expectancy was up in Quebec in 2021, unlike several other regions of the world which have suffered the blow of COVID-19, show new data from the Institute of Statistics (ISQ) published on Wednesday. On average, a Quebecer can expect to live to be 83 now.
Posted at 9:14 a.m.
Updated at 9:36 a.m.
“According to the mortality conditions of 2021, the average lifespan is 81.1 years for men and 84.9 years for women”, indicates the research institute in its report.
For the province, this is an increase from 2020. That year, Quebec had suffered a drop in life expectancy, set at 82.3 years, compared to 82.9 years in 2019. The ISQ also notes that Quebec stands out internationally, noting that contrary to what is observed here, “life expectancy in 2021 has not returned to the level of 2019 in the majority of countries. where data is available.
“Before the pandemic, we were already seeing a slight slowdown in the growth of life expectancy in Quebec, but it was more marked in the rest of Canada, and even more so in the United States. Quebec’s advantage over its neighbors in terms of life expectancy has therefore increased,” write the demographers of the Institute.
Interesting fact: the gap between Quebec and the United States in terms of life expectancy has “widened further” during the pandemic, and is now no less than six years old. For comparison, in 2019 it was only four years and more than 20 years ago, in 2001, it was only two years.
An excess mortality of 4.5%
While the fifth wave of COVID-19 did indeed result in high excess mortality at the start of 2022, it appears to have been brought under control over the long term. Between the start of the pandemic, in March 2020, and March 12, 2022, net excess mortality stood at 4.5% in Quebec, also reveals the report of the Institute of Statistics. This represents “about 6,400 more deaths than expected, from all causes”.
This excess mortality “is lower than the number of deaths linked to COVID-19 that have been reported for the same period”, report the researchers, who add that “this result can be explained in particular by the fact that the additional deaths linked to COVID-19 have been offset by a harvest effect”, i.e. the advancement of certain deaths, in particular in CHSLDs and private residences for the elderly (RPA).
The “protective” effect of certain sanitary measures, which were stronger and longer in Quebec than elsewhere, also probably “reduced mortality linked to other causes”, including the flu, we note.
Despite a few countries that managed to avoid any episode of excess mortality during the pandemic, the ISQ notes that the majority of regions in the world have observed “excess mortality and declines in life expectancy”. “The pandemic is estimated to have caused between 14 and 24 million excess deaths globally since the start of the pandemic. The excess mortality of the United States is much higher than that of Quebec, while that of the rest of Canada, initially lower than that of Quebec, has gradually approached and surpassed it in 2021, ”he concludes.