Suicide in Canada's immigrant population

Key words vital statistics, emigration and immigration, ethnic groups, selection bias, urban health, mortality, cause of death

Author

Eric Caron Malenfant (613-951-3073; [e-mail]) is with the Demography Division at Statistics Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0T6.

More than 100 years of research have shown that suicide is not evenly distributed across all population groups. Suicide rates differ between men and women, young and old, the city and the country. Such is also the case for immigrant and native-born populations. In some countries, immigrants, or at least certain groups of immigrants, have higher suicide rates than the native-born population.(1) In other countries, this is not necessarily the case.(2)

A recent study on the subject in Canada reported substantial differences between immigrants and native-born Canadians in the risk of suicide.(3) However, Canada's immigrant population has grown substantially since 1986, the year of the most recent data analyzed in that study. As well, the composition of the immigrant population has changed dramatically: the percentage born in Europe has dropped, and the proportion from Asia has increased appreciably.

This article compares patterns of suicide in Canada's immigrant population with those of the Canadian-born population in 1991 and 1996 (see Analytical techniques, Data sources, Definitions and Limitations.) Suicide patterns are examined by sex, age, continent of birth and residence in the three largest urban centres (Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver). International comparisons are presented to put the findings in perspective and to determine if immigrants' suicide rates are closer to rates in their countries of origin or to those of the Canadian-born population.

Increasing numbers, shifting origins

In 1996, the foreign-born population numbered more than 5.4 million and made up about 18% of the Canadian population (see Definitions). The 1996 figure was a 12% increase from 1991, far surpassing the 4% increase in native-born Canadians during the same period.

[Graph Not Transcribed]

Nearly half of the immigrant population was born in Europe (Chart 1). However, Asia accounts for a large proportion of recent immigrants, which has resulted in a decline in the percentage of the immigrant population who were born in Europe.

The immigrant population is older than that of the Canadian-born. Proportionally fewer immigrants are younger than 25, and more are aged 25 or older. This is probably because substantial...