Mortality in metropolitan areas

This article examines differences in all causes mortality rates and rates for the leading causes of death (heart disease, cancer and cerebrovascular disease) by census metropolitan area (CMA).

The data are from the Canadian Vital Statistics Data Base maintained by Statistics Canada.

Annualized age-standardized mortality rates were calculated for Canada and for each CMA for the three-year period from 1994 to 1996. Differences between the CMA rates and the national rate were examined.

Mortality rates tend to be high in CMAs in the Atlantic provinces and Québec and low in CMAs in the Prairies and British Columbia. Ontario contains CMAs with some of the highest mortality rates in Canada, as well as others whose rates are among the lowest. The pattern of mortality for specific causes also differs within CMAs: a CMA may have a high death rate for one cause, but a low rate for another.