Background - 2021 Fast Fact Sheet

Introduction

The National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains (NCMPUR) 2021 Fast Fact Sheet provides a national breakdown of missing persons reports by province, age (child or adult), sex, and probable cause. It has been prepared using numbers generated by the national Missing Children/Persons and Unidentified Remains (MC/PUR) Database, which provides the necessary data and tools to coordinate a national approach to these investigations. MC/PUR includes occurrences which are currently open, and concluded occurrences ^{Footnote 1} only if they were open after May 16, 2014. This is the seventh year for which a full set of data exists in MC/PUR for statistical purposes.

The data in MC/PUR is derived from missing person transactions in the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC). Therefore, it is limited by the quality and types of data that agencies enter into CPIC and the techniques used by MC/PUR to compile that data. CPIC transactions include repeat runaways, and situations where a single instance of a missing person may be entered and deleted multiple times by different agencies over a period of time. MC/PUR uses algorithms in an attempt to identify and eliminate duplicate data and produce more accurate statistics. These algorithms are different from those used before 2015, so retroactive comparison to years before 2015 will not be completely correct. An occurrence is considered as belonging to the year 2021 based on the reported "Date Last Seen". The numbers reported herein reflect a "point in time" and can change if records for 2021 cases are added, modified, or flagged as duplicate ^{Footnote 2}.

It is also important to note that in terms of probable cause, there is some subjectivity in the original CPIC data that populates MC/PUR, and it may not be consistently completed nor maintained by agencies.

Two hundred seven (207) missing adults were not included in the adult subjects table as there was no probable cause entered. It is not possible to determine for any one case if the sex field in CPIC is capturing biological sex or gender identity, except for thirty-six (36) individuals where the recently added value "Other" was used. Because they are a small percentage of the overall numbers, they have not been counted in the table. Of these 36 missing adults of "Other" sex, 15 had the probable cause of runaway, 1 had wandered off, and 20 were either unknown or other probable cause.

For children, it is important to note that twenty-eight (28) missing children were not included in the child subjects table, as there was no probable cause entered. Two hundred sixty-eight (268) missing children were not included in the table as the sex was "Other." Of these 268 missing children of "Other" sex, 235 had the probable cause of runaway, 1 had parental abduction/no custody order, and 32 were either unknown or other probable cause.

While the NCMPUR anticipates that future fast fact sheets will be in a similar format to the one produced this year, the categories may change in future years and retroactive comparisons to previous years may not be possible.

This fact sheet has been compiled for NCMPUR by the Program Research and Development Unit (PRDU).

Fast fact sheet – MC/PUR missing adult subjects by province, sex and probable cause for 2021 ^{Footnote *}
Provinces (Population in 2021 ^{Footnote 3})	Abduction by stranger		Accident		Wandered off		Parental abduction with custody order		Parental abduction without custody order		Abducted by relative		Runaway		Presumed dead		Human trafficking		Unknown		Other		Total
	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male
Alberta (4,464,170)	4	3	1	4	160	288	0	1	0	0	0	0	137	125	0	3	1	0	899	1,132	77	107	2,942
British Columbia (5,249,635)	10	6	14	34	389	677	6	1	1	0	1	1	416	534	2	9	2	0	4,590	5,236	742	890	13,561
Manitoba (1,386,333)	0	0	0	1	29	70	0	1	0	0	1	0	486	295	0	0	1	0	560	527	64	89	2,124
New Brunswick (794,300)	0	0	0	1	8	25	0	0	0	0	0	0	39	91	0	0	0	0	138	216	14	24	556
Newfoundland and Labrador (521,758)	0	2	0	0	1	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	8	0	1	0	0	46	47	5	7	126
Nova Scotia (998,832)	0	2	0	1	15	18	0	0	0	0	0	0	9	9	0	0	0	0	46	59	71	87	317
Ontario (14,915,270)	7	3	1	9	252	399	0	0	3	2	3	2	436	592	0	8	18	0	1,973	2,659	288	403	7,058
Prince Edward Island (165,936)	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	3	1	4	11
Quebec (8,631,147)	0	7	1	7	54	190	0	2	1	2	1	1	246	729	2	6	0	0	326	668	184	436	2,863
Saskatchewan (1,180,867)	3	4	2	3	30	41	0	0	0	0	0	0	326	192	0	1	0	0	458	459	20	37	1,576
Yukon Territory (43,095)	2	1	0	0	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	24	26	2	5	64
Northwest Territories (45,515)	0	0	0	0	3	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	14	14	0	3	40
Nunavut Territory (39,589)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2
Total (38,436,447)	26	28	19	60	943	1,720	7	5	5	4	6	4	2,100	2,577	4	29	22	0	9,074	11,046	1,468	2,093	31,240
Table 1 notes Table note * Data subject to caveats outlined in page 1. Based on dates last seen. Return to table note * referrer

Fast facts:

56% of missing adult reports in 2021 involved males
65% of adults who wandered off in 2021 were males
53% of all missing persons reports (all sexes, adults and children) involved adults
60% of missing adult reports in 2021 were removed within 24 hours, while 89% were removed within a week ^{Footnote 4}
In 2021, British Columbia had the highest number of missing adult reports per capita, with 258 reports per 100,000 people, followed by the Manitoba with 152 reports per 100,000 people. Nunavut had the lowest, with five (5) reports per 100,000 people

Fast fact sheet – MC/PUR missing child subjects by province, sex and probable cause for 2021^{Footnote **}
Provinces (Population in 2021 ^{Footnote 5})	Abduction by stranger		Accident		Wandered off		Parental abduction with custody order		Parental abduction without custody order		Abducted by relative		Runaway		Presumed dead		Human trafficking		Unknown		Other		Total
	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male
Alberta (4,464,170)	0	0	0	0	44	32	4	7	3	5	1	0	1,540	1,067	0	1	0	0	90	62	10	15	2,881
British Columbia (5,249,635)	0	1	2	0	59	50	6	7	4	3	0	2	1,177	778	0	0	1	0	1,764	1,133	352	205	5,544
Manitoba (1,386,333)	0	0	0	0	7	4	3	2	4	1	5	2	3,388	1,530	1	0	0	1	271	123	27	21	5,390
New Brunswick (794,300)	1	3	0	0	4	6	1	1	1	0	0	0	236	411	0	0	0	0	34	44	1	6	749
Nova Scotia (998,832)	0	0	0	0	5	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	74	91	0	0	0	0	10	10	21	25	237
Ontario (14,915,270)	2	0	1	0	11	34	5	4	6	7	4	1	2,302	1,642	1	0	23	0	966	537	116	76	5,738
Quebec (8,631,147)	6	0	1	3	9	13	5	7	8	7	2	3	1,222	1,486	0	0	1	1	245	249	84	104	3,456
Saskatchewan (1,180,867)	3	1	0	1	3	7	2	1	1	1	0	0	2,064	1,111	1	0	0	0	366	262	17	10	3,851
Yukon Territory (43,095)	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	3
Northwest Territories (45,515)	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	10	6	0	0	0	0	6	0	1	1	26
Nunavut Territory (39,589)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1
Total (38,436,447)	12	6	4	4	142	149	26	30	28	25	12	8	12,038	8,158	3	1	25	2	3,782	2,470	634	474	28,033
Table 2 notes Table note Data subject to caveats outlined in page 1. Based on dates last seen. Return to table note referrer

Fast facts:

59% of all missing children/youth reports in 2021 involved females
72% of all missing children/youth subjects in 2021 were runaways, 59% of which were female. Manitoba had the highest number of child/youth runaway subjects.
25 female missing children/youth subjects were related to human trafficking, 23 (92%) of which were in Ontario. However, others being trafficked are suspected to be entered as runaway or unknown because of the ambiguity in both terms and the circumstances.
67% of missing children/youth reports in 2021 were removed within 24 hours, while 92% were removed within a week ^{Footnote 6}
52% of all missing persons reports (all sexes, adults and children) involve children or youth
In 2021, Manitoba had the highest number of missing children/youth reports per capita, with 375 reports per 100,000 people, followed by Saskatchewan with 331 reports per 100,000 people. Prince Edward Island and Nunavut had the lowest, with between two to three (2-3) reports per 100,000 people.

Footnotes

Footnote 1

Open occurrences have not yet been resolved. The occurrence is concluded when the missing persons case is resolved (e.g., person has been located).

Return to footnote 1 referrer

Footnote 2

The MC/PUR reports used for this Fast Fact Sheet were generated on February 11, 2022.

Return to footnote 2 referrer

Footnote 3

The population represents quarter 4 of the 2021 Statistics Canada quarterly estimates. Statistics Canada. Table 17-10-0009-01 Population estimates, quarterly. Retrieved from Population estimates, quarterly (statcan.gc.ca) on February 22, 2022.

Return to footnote 3 referrer

Footnote 4