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Where our numbers come from.

We only publish figures we can trace to a primary source. Each statistic below links to the original research, with its year and any limits on how it should be read.

  1. 1

    7% of federal health research grants were allocated to female-specific issues (2023)

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    7.16% — 55 of 768 funded CIHR project grants

    Biology of Sex Differences (peer-reviewed) — Women's health research funding in Canada across 15 years suggests low funding levels with a narrow focus. Published 2025 · data 2009–2023.

    Across the full 15-year period, female-specific research received 6.38% of all CIHR project and operating grant funding.

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  2. 2

    Canadian women spend 24% more of their lives in poor health than men

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    24% more time in poor health or with disability — roughly 14 years lived with disability for women versus 11 for men

    McKinsey Health Institute — Closing the women's health gap: Canada's $37 billion opportunity. 2025.

    Modelled estimate built on Global Burden of Disease data. Cancer, heart disease, and brain disorders account for about three-quarters of the gap in Canada.

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  3. 3

    $3.5 billion — the yearly cost to Canada's economy of unmanaged menopause symptoms

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    $3.5B per year: $3.3B in lost income for women plus $237M in lost productivity for employers

    Menopause Foundation of Canada — Menopause and Work in Canada. October 2023.

    Based on a national survey of working women aged 40–60 combined with labour-force data. Also reports roughly 540,000 lost workdays a year.

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  4. 4

    Every 16 minutes, a woman in Canada dies of heart disease or stroke

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    32,271 women in Canada died of heart disease and stroke in 2019 — one every 16 minutes

    Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada — Women's heart and brain health. 2023 · deaths recorded 2019.

    The Foundation's published figure, derived from Statistics Canada mortality data. Heart & Stroke also reports that half of women who have a heart attack have their symptoms go unrecognized.

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  5. 5

    Closing the women's health gap in Canada could add $37 billion a year to the economy by 2040

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    At least $37 billion in annual GDP by 2040

    McKinsey Health Institute — Closing the women's health gap: Canada's $37 billion opportunity. 2025.

    Roughly three-quarters of the economic toll is attributed to lower workforce participation and productivity among women aged 20–70.

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How we choose a statistic

We use Canadian data wherever it exists, cite the original study or agency rather than news coverage of it, and state the year the data was collected. Where a figure is self-reported, regional, or drawn from a single survey, we say so rather than rounding it into something firmer than it is.

What we cannot tell you

Canada does not systematically collect race-based perinatal data, so there is no national figure for maternal mortality among Black or Indigenous women. Statistics circulating online are almost always drawn from the United States. The strongest Canadian evidence is regional — an Ontario study found Black patients had 2.85 times the risk of very preterm birth compared with white patients. That absence of national data is itself part of the problem.