Canada: Preventive Healthcare - National Policies

Maternal mortality ratio (per 100,000 live births), 2023: 12
Under-five mortality rate (per 1000 live births), 2023: 5.1
Neonatal mortality rate (per 1000 live births), 2023: 3.4
Tuberculosis incidence (per 100,000 population), 2023: 5.8
Probability of dying from any of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease between age 30 and exact age 70 (%), 2021: 9.7%
Suicide mortality rate (per 100,000 population), 2021: 9.4
Adolescent birth rate (per 1000 women aged 15-19 years), 2015-2024: 4.5
Adolescent birth rate (per 1000 women aged 10-14 years), 2015-2024: 0.0
Diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP3) immunization coverage among 1-year-olds (%), 2023: 92%
Measles-containing-vaccine second-dose (MCV2) immunization coverage by the locally recommended age (%), 2023: 79%
Pneumococcal conjugate 3rd dose (PCV3) immunization coverage among 1-year olds (%), 2023: 85%
Human papillomavirus (HPV) immunization coverage estimates among 15 year-old girls (%), 2023: 86%
Prevalence of overweight in children under 5 (%), 2024: 11.4%
Prevalence of anaemia in women aged 15-49 years (%), 2023: 14.0%

Source: World health statistics 2025: monitoring health for the SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals. Tables of health statistics by country and area, WHO region and globally. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2025. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.

Infant mortality, deaths per 1,000 live births, 2021: 4.5
Maternal mortality rate, deaths per 100,000 live births, 2020: 11.0
Congestive heart failure hospital admission in adults, age-sex standardized rate per 100,000 population, 2021: 161
Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease hospital admissions in adults, age-sex standardized rate per 100,000 population, 2021: 132

Source: OECD (2023), Health at a Glance 2023: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, doi.org/10.1787/7a7afb35-en.

Neonatal Mortality Rate, 2021: 3
Infant Mortality Rate, 2021: 4
Under-5 Mortality Rate, 2021: 5
Maternal Mortality Ratio, 2020: 11

Note: “Under-5 mortality rate – Probability of dying between birth and exactly 5 years of age, expressed per 1,000 live births.
“Infant mortality rate – Probability of dying between birth and exactly 1 year of age, expressed per 1,000 live births.
“Neonatal mortality rate – Probability of dying during the first 28 days of life, expressed per 1,000 live births.”
“Maternal mortality ratio – Number of deaths of women from pregnancy-related causes per 100,000 live births during the same time period (modelled estimates).”

Source: United Nations Children’s Fund, The State of the World’s Children 2023: For every child, vaccination, UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight, Florence, April 2023.

“Although the need to address inequities in medicine has long been recognized,²³⁴^–²³⁷ prioritizing health care for people experiencing disadvantages may represent a radical shift away from carrying on as though health care and outcomes were fair, and toward taking specific actions aimed at addressing inequities. National and provincial bodies that support clinicians can help disseminate the recommendations and assist in their implementation.

“Some of the recommended interventions, including IGRA testing and HPV and HIV self-testing, may reduce workloads for primary care providers. Time implications for clinicians in implementing the recommendations are discussed in Appendix 2. The decision supports we provide (Appendix 3, available at www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.230237/tab-related-content, and at http://www.screening.ca) can be used to implement our recommendations focused on people experiencing disadvantages, alongside other guidance aimed at the general population.

“Dedicated efforts should be made to provide people experiencing specific disadvantages (e.g., people experiencing homelessness) with access to preventive care.¹⁴⁶^,²³⁸ For example, improved access to preventive care such as screening must be matched with improvements in connecting patients to management options in the case of a positive screen, which includes access to sufficient travel grants for those living in rural or remote areas, if the care needed cannot be provided locally. Language translation services will help support the implementation of recommendations.

“Given that many inequities are rooted in exploitation and theft,⁴^–⁶ it is appropriate to invest resources in promoting equitable health outcomes. Preventive care represents a relatively small fraction of total health spending in Canada (5%, according to 2023 data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, compared with 25% for hospitals).²³⁹ Although cost savings are not the rationale for the recommendations in this guideline, many recommendations likely will save money (e.g., access to primary care will likely reduce total health spending) and make care more efficient (e.g., IGRA testing reduces the number of patient visits). Additional infrastructure, such as CT scanners in rural settings, may be needed. Other recommended interventions (e.g., HPV testing) appear to be cost-effective.”

Source: Nav Persaud, Areesha Sabir, Hannah Woods, Ambreen Sayani, Arnav Agarwal, Muna Chowdhury, Kathleen de Leon-Demare, Somtochukwu Ibezi, Saadia Hameed Jan, Alan Katz, Frantz-Daniel LaFortune, Melanie Lewis, Trudy McFarlane, Anjali Oberai, Yinka Oladele, Onyema Onyekwelu, Lisa Peters, Patrick Wong, Aisha Lofters. Preventive care recommendations to promote health equity. CMAJ Sep 2023, 195 (37) E1250-E1273; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.230237

“More equitable deployment of primary and preventive care could help address health disparities. Primary care providers and their representative bodies should be supported by governments in implementing recommendations that promote health equity, with careful tracking of their effects, especially in those experiencing disadvantages. Future health care guidance should centre on, rather than just mention, health equity.”

Canada: Preventive Healthcare - obesity, overweight, wasting, avoidable hospitalizations, tuberculosis, HIV, COPD, heart disease, diabetes - National Policies - World Health Systems Facts

World Health Systems Facts is a project of the Real Reporting Foundation. We provide reliable statistics and other data from authoritative sources regarding health systems and policies in the US and sixteen other OECD member nations.

Page last updated August 5, 2025 by Doug McVay, Editor.