Life expectancy in Quebec has returned to pre-pandemic levels, reveals new data from the Institute of Statistics of Quebec (ISQ). They also show that the overdose crisis does not spare the province even though it is the main cause of the increase in deaths among 25-44 year olds.
We observe an increase in mortality among 25-44 year olds during the period 2020-2023. Deaths related to overdoses among this age group are now higher than motor vehicle accidents as well as homicides or feminicides.
This increase has been gradual, underlines Frédéric Fleury-Payeur, demographer at the ISQ. “We have been talking about the overdose crisis for several years, especially those linked to opioids, but it has intensified in recent years,” he comments.
Mr. Fleury-Payeur indicates that suicide explains a greater share of deaths among 25-44 year olds, but suicide has seen a decline year after year since the 2000s.
However, the growth in mortality among 25-44 year olds is less strong in Quebec than in the rest of Canada or the United States.
According to new data from the ISQ revealed on Wednesday, the provisional estimate of the number of deaths occurring in Quebec in 2023 stands at 77,550, which represents a drop of 1% compared to 2022.
This brings the life expectancy of the Quebec population back to what we observed before the COVID-19 pandemic which disrupted the data of recent years.
For 2023, women could expect to live to 84.3 years and men to 80.7 years. Life expectancy has stagnated in Quebec since 2016, but it remains among the highest in the world.
According to Mr. Fleury-Payeur, COVID-19 has impacted the upward trend in life expectancy that could have been expected without the pandemic.
“If mortality linked to COVID-19 disappears, and it is very possible that it will continue to decrease over the coming years, will we see an upward trend in life expectancy? “It’s something that is possible,” believes the demographer.
Among Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, Japan has the best life expectancy, at 84.1 years in 2022 (men and women combined).
Births at their lowest in almost 20 years
At the same time, Quebec experienced a 3% drop in the number of births between 2022 and 2023, according to data published Wednesday by the ISQ. This brings births to their lowest level since 2005.
The ISQ estimates that 77,950 babies will be born in Quebec in 2023. The decline in the number of births has continued since 2013, the year when Quebec recorded 88,900 births.
The other Canadian provinces have not yet published their data on births that took place last year, but Frédéric Fleury-Payeur expects them to also see a decrease.
“It’s important to put this in an international context where we see a decline almost everywhere on earth,” mentions Mr. Fleury-Payeur.
There are multiple factors to explain the decline in births. Mr. Fleury-Payeur talks about the cost of living and the difficult access to property. Simply accessing housing, for example to move from a 4 and a half to a 5 and a half, is difficult in the current housing market.
The demographer adds that the desire to give birth to children is declining and that this may be linked to concerns, particularly from an environmental point of view.
The difficulty of forming stable unions is also an area that is increasingly studied in an attempt to understand the influence that this can have on the desire to procreate.
The total fertility rate fell again to stand at 1.38 children per woman in 2023, one of the lowest fertility rates in the history of Quebec. “We find ourselves at the second lowest level ever recorded in Quebec after 1.36 which we observed in 1987,” specifies Mr. Fleury-Payeur.
At the Canadian level, Quebec’s fertility is higher than that of the majority of other provinces.
In recent years, a peak of 1.73 children per woman was reached in 2008 and 2009, but since then the trend has been downward with the exception of the rise in 2021. According to the ISQ, this figure of exception can be explained by the fact that Quebecers decided to postpone the plan to have a child due to the COVID-19 pandemic which first hit in 2020.
Among the highlights of the demographic report, we note that 37% of babies born in Quebec in the last year have at least one parent born in another country. This proportion tends to increase over the years. It was 21% in 2000, then reached 33% in 2019.
Furthermore, the babies of 2023 continued the seasonal profile that we have known in Quebec for many years. According to the Quebec trend, more children are generally born in summer than during any other season of the year, the slowest period being winter. The month of September is once again in 2023 the month when the highest number of daily births was recorded, i.e. 227 per day.
The Canadian Press’ health content receives funding through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. The Canadian Press is solely responsible for editorial choices.