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Leading causes of death

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Cancer and heart disease, the two leading causes of death for Canadians, were responsible for just over one-half (51%) of the 235,217 deaths in Canada in 2007.

Cancer accounted for 30% of deaths, and heart disease, 22%. Stroke, in third place, accounted for 6%. The proportion from cancer was up slightly from 2000, while the proportion from both heart disease and stroke declined.

Ranked in order, the other seven leading causes of death were chronic lower respiratory diseases, accidents, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, influenza and pneumonia, kidney disease and suicide.

These 10 leading causes accounted for 77% of all deaths in 2007, down from 80% in 2000. The list has been identical since 2000, but the ranking has changed slightly. In 2000, suicide and kidney disease were ninth and tenth, respectively. By 2007, they had switched places.

Leading causes of death vary widely by age group

The leading causes of death varied widely by age group in 2007. Among young adults aged 15 to 34, accidents and suicide ranked first and second respectively, a trend observed since 2000.

Among individuals aged 35 to 74, cancer was the leading cause, while for those aged 85 and older, it was heart disease.

The proportion of deaths due to cancer reached its highest level for individuals aged 55 to 64, where it accounted for almost half (48%) of deaths.

In contrast, the proportion of deaths due to heart disease increased steadily as the population aged. It surpassed the proportion of deaths due to cancer at the age of 85 and older, where it accounted for 27% of deaths.

Men and women share six of top causes of death

In 2007, men and women shared 6 out of 10 leading causes of death.

The two top leading causes of death remained cancer and heart disease for both sexes. While stroke still ranked third for women in 2007, the third most common for men was accidents.

There were three times more suicides among men than among women and twice as many deaths caused by liver disease among men than women.

In 2007, women accounted for 7 out of every 10 deaths from Alzheimer's disease.

Age standardized-mortality rates continue downward trend for cancer, heart disease

To control for the impact of population aging on death rates, comparisons over time are made using the "age-standardized mortality rate." This removes the impact of differences in the age structure of populations among areas and over time.

From 2000 to 2007, age-standardized mortality rates generally declined for all 10 leading causes of death.

The standardized mortality rates for cancer decreased from 180 per 100,000 population in 2000 to 166 in 2007. The standardized rates for heart disease fell at an even faster pace, from 152 per 100,000 population to 111. Thus, the gap between the standardized rates for these two causes of death widened over this period.

From 2000 to 2007, the standardized mortality rates for heart disease also declined faster than those for cancer for both men and for women.

However, the decrease in the standardized mortality rates of both leading causes of death was sharper for men. As a result, the gap between men and women for these two leading causes of death narrowed over this period.

Age-standardized mortality rates for cancer and heart disease, Canada

Canada-US comparison

In 2007, cancer outranked heart disease as the most common cause of death in Canada. However, in the United States, the ranking of these causes was reversed.

In the United States, 23% of all deaths were attributed to cancer, compared with 30% in Canada. Conversely, 25% of all deaths were attributed to heart disease in the United States, compared with 22% in Canada. Stroke was the third-leading cause in both countries.

In Canada, suicide outranked homicide as a leading cause of death among young adults aged 15 to 24, where suicide and homicide ranked second and third respectively. In contrast, homicide was the second leading cause of death in young adults in the United States and suicide the third.

Available on CANSIM: tables 102-0561 to 102-0563.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey numbers, including related surveys, 3231 and 3233.

The publication Leading Causes of Death in Canada, 2007 (84-215-X, free), is now available from the Key resource module of our website under Publications.

For more information, or to order custom tabulations, contact Client Services (613-951-1746; fax: 613-951-4198 hd-ds@statcan.gc.ca). To enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Dai, Shiang Ying (613-951-1759) or Patricia Schembari (613-951-9502), Health Statistics Division.

Table 1

Ranking and number of deaths for the 10 leading causes, Canada, 2000 and 2007 
  2000 2007
  rank number % rank number %
All causes of death ... 218,062 100.0 ... 235,217 100.0
Total, 10 leading causes of death ... 175,149 80.3 ... 180,848 76.9
Malignant neoplasms (cancer) 1 62,672 28.7 1 69,595 29.6
Diseases of heart (heart disease) 2 55,070 25.3 2 50,499 21.5
Cerebrovascular diseases (stroke) 3 15,576 7.1 3 13,981 5.9
Chronic lower respiratory diseases 4 9,813 4.5 4 10,659 4.5
Accidents (unintentional injuries) 5 8,589 3.9 5 9,951 4.2
Diabetes mellitus (diabetes) 6 6,714 3.1 6 7,394 3.1
Alzheimer's disease 7 5,007 2.3 7 5,903 2.5
Influenza and pneumonia 8 4,966 2.3 8 5,452 2.3
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis (kidney disease) 10 3,136 1.4 9 3,803 1.6
Intentional self-harm (suicide) 9 3,606 1.7 10 3,611 1.5
All other causes ... 42,913 19.7 ... 54,369 23.1
not applicable
Note(s):
The order of the causes of death in this table is based on the rank ing of the 10 leading causes of death in 2007.

Table 2

Ranking, number and percentage of male and female deaths for the 10 leading causes, Canada, 2007 
  Males Females
  rank number % rank number %
All causes of death ... 118,681 100.0 ... 116,536 100.0
Malignant neoplasms (cancer) 1 36,569 30.8 1 33,026 28.3
Diseases of heart (heart disease) 2 26,381 22.2 2 24,118 20.7
Accidents (unintentional injuries) 3 6,015 5.1 6 3,936 3.4
Cerebrovascular diseases (stroke) 4 5,719 4.8 3 8,262 7.1
Chronic lower respiratory diseases 5 5,572 4.7 4 5,087 4.4
Diabetes mellitus (diabetes) 6 3,906 3.3 7 3,488 3.0
Intentional self-harm (suicide) 7 2,727 2.3 12 884 0.8
Influenza and pneumonia 8 2,438 2.1 8 3,014 2.6
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis (kidney disease) 9 1,877 1.6 9 1,926 1.7
Chronic Liver disease and cirrhosis (liver disease) 10 1,756 1.5 11 895 0.8
Alzheimer's disease 11 1,739 1.5 5 4,164 3.6
Septicaemia 14 964 0.8 10 1,008 0.9
All other causes ... 23,018 19.4 ... 26,728 22.9
not applicable
Note(s):
The order of the causes of death in this table is based on the rank ing of the 10 leading causes for males.