At present, the leading causes of death in Canada are diseases related to the heart (accounting for 37% of deaths) and the various forms of cancer (28%). No other single cause of death represents more than eight percent of the total.

In 1999, the lifetime probability that a Canadian would develop some form of cancer was 41.8% in males and 35.6% in females; the probability that a Canadian would die of one or another form of cancer was 27% for males and 22.8% for females. The leading types of cancer in Canadian men are prostate and lung; in women, breast, colorectal, and lung cancers are the most common.

A leading cause of both lung cancer and heart disease is tobacco smoking. Among Canadians fifteen years of age and older, 27% of males and 22% of females smoke daily, with the highest incidence being men in Quebec between the ages of 20 and 44 (35%), and the lowest being men and women in British Columbia (21%).