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New data from Statistics Canada indicates that Saskatchewan residents are living fewer years in good health than they were at the start of the decade.
The agency released its latest figures on Health-Adjusted Life Expectancy, or HALE, last week.
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HALE is a metric used to estimate the number of years a person is expected to live in full health, based on current mortality rates and health status. Unlike standard life expectancy, HALE subtracts the years a person spends living with disease, injury, or disability.
According to the report, the overall HALE at birth for Saskatchewan residents dropped from 67.1 years in 2020 to 64.9 years in 2023.
The data highlights a stark contrast in health outcomes based on income.
In 2023, residents in the lowest income bracket had a healthy life expectancy of 59.2 years. In comparison, those in the highest income bracket had a healthy expectancy of 68.4 years — a difference of more than nine years.
This gap appears to be widening for the lowest earners. In 2019, the lowest income group had a HALE of 62.8 years, meaning they have lost more than three years of expected healthy living in the last four years.
Women in the province continue to average more healthy years than men. In 2023, the HALE for females was 66 years, compared to 63.9 years for males. However, both sexes have seen a decline from their 2019 and 2020 numbers.
The most significant drop was observed in males within the lowest income group, whose healthy life expectancy fell from 59.6 years in 2019 to 55.8 years in 2023.
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