While there are many similarities among Canadian provinces, there are also a number of differences in demographic variables such as age, population density and income. For this reason, a comparison with an international comparator can be valuable.
Canada’s health systems are often compared with those in Australia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. Like Canada, these peer countries have large developed economies with similar levels of resources to devote to health care. They also have comparable data collection methods.
Data table: International Comparisons, Peer Countries (XLSX)
This page presents the comparison results for Canada and the provinces with Canada’s peer countries on a number of health and demographic variables.
When a province is selected, the highlighted cells indicate the countries with results that are similar to those of the selected province (see the table notes).The country that has the most highlighted cells is likely the best comparator for the selected province. The total population is presented for reference only; it is not used for comparison purposes.
Highlighted cells indicate that values are within half a standard deviation from the selected province, where the standard deviation is based on data from the peer countries shown in the table below.
Health System Descriptors for Peer Countries, Canada and Provinces, 2016 (or Nearest Year)