Mortality rose in 2021, led by cancer, heart disease, overdoses and COVID-19: StatCan

More people died in Canada in 2021 than the previous year, with cancer, heart disease, overdoses and COVID-19 cited as the leading causes of death.

Data from Statistics Canada shows an increase in mortality among men as driving the rise in deaths to 311,640 — an increase of one per cent from the previous year.

The life expectancy also fell once again from 81.7 years to 81.6 years. It had decreased in 2020 by 0.6 years.

StatCan says that while cancer and heart disease remain the top two leading causes of death, accidental deaths rose by 14.5 per cent 2021, mostly due to fatal overdoses and falls.

COVID-19 also continued to affect Canadians’ health as the fourth leading cause of death that year, with notable increase among younger people.

The data shows COVID-19 deaths among people under age 65 more than doubled in the second year of the pandemic. The agency says just over 2,600 younger Canadians died of the disease in 2021 and that nearly 66 per cent of them were men.