Canada’s life expectancy is recovering, but healthy years are falling as mental health, measles, toxic drugs and wildfire risks persist

The chief public health officer’s annual report flags youth mental health, measles, toxic drugs, infections, cancer and wildfire smoke

OTTAWA — Life expectancy in Canada has nearly returned to its pre-pandemic level, but the number of years people can expect to live in good health has fallen sharply, according to the chief public health officer’s 2026 report.

The report says life expectancy reached 82.1 years in 2024 after two consecutive annual increases. It had fallen from 82.2 years in 2019 to 81.1 years in 2022, the largest decline recorded in Canada.

Health-adjusted life expectancy moved in the other direction. In 2023, people in Canada could expect to spend an average of 66.9 years in good health, almost two years less than in 2019 and more than three years below the peak reached in the early 2010s.

Young adults drive a troubling change

The Public Health Agency of Canada report points to worsening emotional health among people under 65 as the main contributor to the drop in healthy years. The largest declines were among adults aged 18 to 34.

Self-reported mental health also worsened over the past decade. The share of adults who rated their mental health as very good or excellent fell from 72 per cent in 2015 to 59 per cent in 2021. Among youth aged 12 to 17, it fell from 78 per cent to 62 per cent.

The report says the decline did not appear to continue between 2023 and 2024, but the level remained below that of a decade earlier. It cautions that greater awareness and willingness to report mental-health problems may explain part, but not all, of the change.

Unequal health outcomes

The national averages hide large gaps. In 2023, residents of the lowest-income neighbourhoods lived five years less than those in the highest-income neighbourhoods and could expect eight fewer years in good health.

Between 2016 and 2021, life expectancy was 13.6 years lower for First Nations people living on reserve and 13.1 years lower for Inuit than for the non-Indigenous population. The report links these gaps to the continuing effects of colonialism, systemic racism and unequal access to the conditions that support health.

Seven warning signs

The annual report examines life expectancy, mental health, toxic drug harms, sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections, measles, cancer and wildfires.

Apparent opioid-toxicity deaths fell 17 per cent from 2023 to 2024 and a further 23 per cent in 2025, but remained almost twice the level at the start of the crisis in 2016. The unregulated drug supply also contains changing mixtures that may cause harms naloxone does not directly reverse.

Canada recorded 5,462 confirmed and probable measles cases in 2025 and lost its measles-elimination status after sustained transmission. The multi-province outbreak ended in October 2026, but childhood vaccine coverage has not returned to its 2019 level.

Wildfire smoke is another growing national health threat. The report links exposure to respiratory and heart problems, developmental effects and premature death. It notes that 41.9 per cent of wildfire evacuations between 1980 and 2021 involved predominantly Indigenous communities.

The public-health task ahead

Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Joss Reimer identifies three priorities: improve the health and well-being of younger people, strengthen prevention and emergency readiness, and build trusted public-health leadership backed by strong evidence.

The report is a snapshot rather than a complete diagnosis of health in Canada. Its figures come from national surveillance, surveys and administrative data that are often released with a lag. The agency also warns that national averages do not fully describe the experience of every community.

Its central finding is clear: recovering years of life is not enough if Canadians spend a growing part of those years in poor health.