Less risk of dying from cancer, heart disease in Nunavut: StatCan

Cancer and heart disease cause fewer deaths in Nunavut than elsewhere in Canada.

That’s according to a Statistics Canada report released on Thursday, Nov. 29, on causes of death in Canada.

StatCan said cancer and heart disease remain the two leading causes of death in every province and territory for which data is available—except in Nunavut.

Nunavut stands out from the other provinces and territories, with only 16 per cent of deaths attributable to cancer and 9.5 per cent to heart disease.

Cerebrovascular diseases, which affect the blood vessels of the brain, chronic lower respiratory diseases and accidents combined accounted for 18 per cent of deaths in Nunavut.

Looking at Nunavut in 2017, the data shows cancer killed 27 people, heart disease, 16, cerebrovascular diseases, four, chronic respiratory diseases, 15, and accidents, 15.

Overall, cancer, heart disease, cerebrovascular diseases, chronic lower respiratory diseases and accidental causes of death accounted for roughly 60 per cent of deaths in the provinces and territories for which data was available. In Nunavut, meanwhile, these causes represented 43 per cent of all deaths.

StatCan said that in Canada the number of these deaths among women has increased faster than the number of these deaths among men.

But that’s not the case in Nunavut, which has the lowest number of deaths among women when compared to men: 63 female deaths for 100 male deaths.

Tables show that the death rate for a young man between the ages of 20 to 24 in Nunavut is more than six times higher than among Canadians of the same age in general.

Although the numbers are relatively small, the rate of deaths from accidents and chronic respiratory diseases in Nunavut are the highest in Canada.