TORONTO – Canadian women continue to live longer than men: nearly five years more: it emerges from a new report by Statistics Canada, published on Friday, which provides updated national measures of life expectancy and also health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE), revealing complex patterns in population health that go beyond mere lifespan. 

Life expectancy (LE) is an indicator representing the average number of years a person can expect to live based on current mortality rates. HALE, on the other hand, estimates how many of those years will be lived in good health, taking into account morbidity and disability over the course of a person’s life, as the report explains. In other words, HALE reflects not just how long people live, but how well they live during those years. Let’s take a look at the data.

2023 data show that Canadian women born that year can expect to live 84 years, compared with 79.6 years for men, a total life expectancy gap of 4.4 years. Regarding HALE, women can expect 67.7 years in good health, while men can expect 66.4 years. According to the report, women therefore live longer and accumulate more years both in good and poor health. However, the percentage of life spent in good health is slightly higher for men. In fact, men born in 2023 are expected to spend about 83 percent of their lives in good health, compared with 81 percent for women, according to HALE estimates. At age 65, this gap persists: men are expected to spend 75 percent of their remaining years in good health, versus 71 percent for women.

The report shows that gains in HALE have not kept pace with increases in overall life expectancy, meaning that longer lives are not necessarily healthier lives. Canadians born in 2023 had an estimated HALE of 66.9 years, down nearly two years compared with 2019 and 2020, despite life expectancy in Canada increasing. So, although Canadians are living longer today, a growing number of those years are being lived with health limitations.

There is another significant aspect highlighted in the study: HALE continues to vary according to income. In short, Canadian men and women with higher incomes generally live longer in good health than those with lower incomes. And, it seems, the gap is substantial: at birth, the difference in HALE is over eight years. Those born into low-income families can expect about 61.9 years in good health, while those born into high-income families can expect about 70 years. The 8.1-year gap in 2023 is similar to that observed in 2019 (8.3 years) and 2020 (8.1 years), and slightly wider than in 2015–2017 (7.8 years), so the health disparity between rich and poor has slightly increased over time.

There used to be a saying: “Money isn’t everything; health is more important.” But today, it is clear that without money, even accessing healthcare is more difficult. And a new saying could be: “Wealthy rhymes with healthy…”.

READ THE FULL REPORT FROM STATISTIC CANADA HERE

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