Life expectancy returns to pre-pandemic level in Quebec: study

Life expectancy in Quebec has returned to pre-pandemic levels, according to new data from the Institut de la statistique du Québec (ISQ).

There was an increase in mortality rates among 25- to 44-year-olds from 2020 to 2023. Deaths related to overdoses among that age group are now higher than motor vehicle accidents, as well as homicides or femicides.

This increase has been gradual, said the ISQ’s Frédéric Fleury-Payeur.

“We have been talking about the overdose crisis for several years, especially those linked to opioids, but it has intensified in recent years,” he said.

Fleury-Payeur explained that suicide accounts for a larger share of deaths among 25- to 44-year-olds, but suicide rates have declined year after year since the 2000s.

However, the increase in mortality among 25- to 44-year-olds is less marked in Quebec than in the rest of Canada or the United States.

According to the new ISQ data, the provisional estimate of the number of deaths in Quebec in 2023 stands at 77,550, which represents a one per cent drop compared to 2022.

That brings life expectancy in Quebec back to what it was before the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted the data of recent years.

For 2023, women could expect to live to 84.3 years, and men to 80.7 years. Life expectancy has stagnated in Quebec since 2016, but it remains among the highest in the world.

According to Fleury-Payeur, COVID-19 impacted the upward trend in life expectancy that Quebec would have been expected without the pandemic.

“If mortality linked to COVID-19 disappears, and it is very possible that it will continue to decrease over the coming years, will we see an upward trend in life expectancy? It’s something that is possible,” said the demographer.

Among countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Japan has the highest life expectancy at 84.1 years in 2022 (men and women combined).

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews