2020 Death in Canada in Perspective

On Wednesday Statistics Canada released a report Provisional death counts and excess mortality, January to August 2020. 

The data are provisional (i.e., they include only deaths occurring over the reference period that have been reported to Statistics Canada by the provinces and territories), In StatsCan's view "they provide an important benchmark for understanding the potential impacts of the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic on communities across Canada."

According to StatsCan "Despite differences in how the data are collected, results from the first wave of the pandemic indicate that surveillance figures from public health authorities are comparable to provisional counts of deaths attributable to COVID-19 from the Canadian Vital Statistics Death Database—the official source of data on deaths in Canada. The weekly trend was similar for both data sources, with the greatest proportion of COVID-19 deaths occurring in April and May, followed by a significant decrease in the summer months. Overall, provincial and territorial vital statistics offices have reported 8,145 deaths attributed to COVID-19 from March to June, about 5% more than the surveillance figures (7,755) reported for the same period."

Digging into the data, it's notable that excess mortality is dominated by deaths in Quebec and Ontario, and to a lesser extend British Columbia, with those 65 and older accounting for the vast majority of deaths. For others, deaths are within the normal range of variation from year to year.

Once again Ontario is a laggard in compiling statistics. Whereas provisional estimates for the first 36 weeks of 2020 are available for Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Alberta, British Columbia, and Northwest Territories for Ontario only 31 weeks are available. 

To explore trends check out the Weekly death counts: Interactive tool.

For a longer-term perspective see https://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.com/2020/02/how-deadly-is-2019-ncov-century-long.html, one of many posts on the topic that can be found by searching this blog.