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Life expectancy continues to trend down

As of the most recent Statistics Canada update , Canadian life expectancy at birth is 81.3. This is well above the global average of around 70, but Canada remains locked in an unprecedented situation in which the life expectancy is currently lower than it once was.

For more than 100 years, the trend in Canada was that life expectancy was ticking upwards. It didn’t matter if there were world wars or pandemics: Each year saw another few months added to the lifespan of the average Canadian.

But then, life expectancy hit a peak of 82.3 in 2019, and it’s been downhill ever since. The immediate reversal was blamed on the tens of thousands of excess deaths caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the figure’s stubborn refusal to bounce back sp

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