Report spans disease, substance use, wildfires, and mental health across seven trends
Canadians are living longer, but fewer of those years are healthy ones, according to the annual report from Canada’s chief public health officer.
Dr. Joss Reimer released The State of Public Health in Canada 2026 this week. It examines seven trends: years in good health, mental health, toxic drug harms, sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections, measles, cancer and wildfires. For experts, the findings bear on disability and drug-claims experience, mental health coverage and assumptions about how long members stay healthy enough to work.
“Addressing many of the issues highlighted in this report depends on our ability to work together,” Reimer wrote in the report. “This becomes even more important as climate change, new technologies, and the spread of misinformation reshape how we live. Concerning trends among younger populations have critical implications for both current and future national well-being.”
Longer lives, fewer healthy years
Life expectancy at birth rebounded to 82.1 years in 2024, after falling to 81.1 years in 2022 amid COVID-19 and toxic drug deaths, the report says. But health-adjusted life expectancy, which measures years lived in good health, fell to 66.9 years in 2023, nearly two years lower than in 2019. The measure may interest those modelling healthy working years and retirement timing.
Income shapes the gap. In 2023, Canadians in the lowest-income neighbourhoods lived five fewer years, and had eight fewer healthy years, than those in the highest-income areas. Life expectancy among First Nations, Inuit and Métis populations remains 4.5 to 13.6 years lower than among non-Indigenous people.
“Public health gains cannot be taken for granted,” Reimer said in a statement. “The report shows that progress is not always permanent. While important gains have been made in some areas, emerging and recurring challenges highlight the need for continued public health attention.”
Mental health, drug harms and disease
Perceived high mental health fell from 72% to 59% among adults and from 78% to 62% among youth between 2015 and 2021. Data from 2023–2024 suggest stabilization, but levels remain well below a decade earlier. Young women aged 12 to 34 reported the largest drop.
Opioid toxicity deaths fell 17% from 2023 to 2024 and another 23% from 2024 to 2025, partly due to wider naloxone availability, the report says. The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) counted 5,608 opioid-related deaths in 2025 in data released in June, a figure still above pre-pandemic levels.
PHAC declared the outbreak over last week, after Canada lost its measles elimination status in late 2025. More than 6,400 people were infected across 10 provinces, PHAC said. The report says more than 94% of cases occurred in unvaccinated or under-vaccinated people, and childhood vaccination coverage has not returned to pre-pandemic targets.
Cancer mortality has dropped 42% in males and 28% in females since historical peaks, but early-onset colorectal and breast cancers are rising. Infectious syphilis increased more than fourfold between 2014 and 2023. Wildfire seasons are growing longer and more severe, with seven of the 10 worst evacuation years on record occurring in the past decade.
Reimer’s priorities as chief public health officer are supporting younger populations, strengthening prevention and preparedness, and building public health knowledge, trust and leadership. The statement noted that differing outcomes are shaped by factors such as income and housing, as well as systemic racism and colonialism.
