OTTAWA - Life expectancy for Canadians decreased for the third straight year in 2022, and more people died of COVID-19 than in any other year since the pandemic began, according to a report released Monday.

Statistics Canada’s analysis of deaths(opens in a new tab) last year shows the average Canadian’s life expectancy dropped to 81.3 years in 2022, a full year lower than the 82.3 years recorded in 2019.

COVID-19 became the third-leading cause of death for Canadians last year, overtaking accidents and unintentional injuries for the first time since the disease emerged in 2020.

“This increase may in part be due to the exposure to new highly transmissible COVID-19 variants and the gradual return to normalcy,” the report said, pointing to reduced restrictions and the elimination of masking requirements.

Cancer and heart disease were the first and second most common causes of mortality, accounting for 41.8 per cent of all deaths in 2022.

Mortality debt from the lockdowns.