2023 Fast Fact Sheet

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Summary

The overall number of persons who went missing increased by 8% in 2023, from 65,271 occurrences in 2022 to 70,168 in 2023, bringing the total number to within 5% of where it was pre-COVID-19 (2019). Chart 1 highlights that the most dramatic impact observed during the pandemic was on the number of missing children occurrences (under 18 years of age), where the number of occurrences has not yet risen back to pre-COVID-19 levels. Adult occurrences were not affected to the same extent and have now risen above the 2019 levels.

Chart 1: Number of missing persons occurrences by year age group and sex

Number of missing persons occurrences by year age group and sex
2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Female child 23,014 19,317 16,756 17,487 20,654
Female adult 14,169 13,009 13,972 14,629 14,995
Male child 17,490 12,764 11,350 13,457 13,819
Male adult 19,216 17,266 17,950 19,698 20,700

Introduction

The National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains 2023 Fast Fact Sheet provides a national breakdown of missing persons reports (occurrences) by province, age (child or adult), sex (female, male, other or unknown), 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 that were open any time after May 16, 2014.

The data in MC/PUR is derived from missing persons 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. Not all people who go missing are necessarily reported to police, and not all cases reported to police are entered onto CPIC (especially those that are resolved quickly) but the numbers here are unable to represent those. CPIC transactions include repeat runaways and situations where a single instance of a missing person may be entered and deleted multiple times 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 2023 based on the person’s reported “Date Last Seen”. The numbers reported herein reflect a “point in time” and can change if records for 2023 cases are added, modified, or flagged as duplicate. The MC/PUR reports used for this Fast Fact Sheet were generated on February 1 and 2, 2024. Footnote 1

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

There were 183 missing adults 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 mandatory sex field in CPIC is capturing biological sex or gender identity, except perhaps for 78 individuals where the recently added value “Other” was used. Since they represent a small percentage of the overall numbers (0.002%), they have not been included in the table below. Of these 78 missing adults of “Other” sex, 10 (13%) had the probable cause of runaway, 2 (3%) had wandered off, and 66 (85%) were either unknown or other probable cause.

For children, 36 missing children were not included in the child subjects table, as there was no probable cause entered. Additionally, 718 missing children (0.02% of the overall number) were not included in the table as the sex was “Other.” Of these 718 missing children of “Other” sex, 579 (81%) had the probable cause of runaway, 4 (<1%) had wandered off, and 135 (19%) were either unknown or other probable cause.

While the National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains 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 National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains by the Program Research and Development Unit.

Fast fact sheet: MC/PUR missing adult subjects by province, sex and probable cause for 2023

Table 1: MC/PUR missing adult subjects by province, sex and probable cause for 2023 Table 1 note 1
Provinces and territories (Population in 2023) Footnote 2 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 (4,756,408) 6 1 1 4 204 368 0 0 0 0 1 0 131 112 0 3 1 0 1,180 1,338 76 100 3,526
British Columbia (5,581,127) 6 9 6 21 478 789 5 4 1 0 0 1 551 591 2 13 1 1 4,895 5,948 735 1,011 15,068
Manitoba (1,465,440) 1 0 1 2 64 74 0 0 1 0 1 1 230 180 0 0 0 0 464 449 102 87 1,657
New Brunswick (842,725) 0 2 0 0 16 43 0 0 0 0 0 0 81 165 0 1 0 0 149 245 7 24 733
Newfoundland and Labrador (540,418) 0 0 0 0 1 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 5 0 0 0 0 47 69 9 8 151
Nova Scotia (1,066,416) 2 0 0 0 7 17 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 7 1 0 0 0 50 76 46 67 283
Ontario (15,801,768) 3 5 1 13 238 553 0 0 2 0 3 2 442 677 0 9 13 0 2,222 3,018 291 461 7,953
Prince Edward Island (175,853) 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 2 9 1 6 22
Quebec (8,948,540) 7 7 0 2 61 149 0 1 4 6 0 0 383 1,344 1 4 2 0 486 1,046 189 483 4,175
Saskatchewan (1,218,976) 0 1 0 0 26 45 0 0 0 0 1 0 369 274 0 0 1 0 539 548 26 46 1,876
Yukon (45,148) 0 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 15 20 0 2 41
Northwest Territories (44,760) 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 4 12 2 2 25
Nunavut (40,817) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 3
Total (40,528,396) 25 25 9 42 1,096 2,050 5 5 8 6 6 4 2,205 3,359 5 30 18 1 10,053 12,780 1,484 2,297 35,513

Fast facts

  • 51% of all missing persons reports (all sexes, adults and children) involved adults.
  • 58% of missing adult reports in 2023 involved males.
  • 65% of adults who wandered off were males.
  • 33% of missing adult reports in 2023 were removed from CPIC within 24 hours, while 72% were removed within a week. Footnote 3
  • In 2023, British Columbia had the highest number of missing adult reports per capita, with 269 reports per 100,000 people, followed by Saskatchewan with 153 reports per 100,000 people. Nunavut had the lowest, with 7 reports per 100,000 people.
  • 12% of all missing adults in 2023 were Indigenous and 58% of all missing Indigenous adults were female. Footnote 4

Fast fact sheet: MC/PUR missing child subjects by province, sex and probable cause for 2023

Table 2: MC/PUR missing child subjects by province, sex and probable cause for 2023 Table 2 note 1
Provinces and territories (Population in 2023) Footnote 6 Abduction by stranger Accident Wandered off Parental abduction with custody order Parental abduction without custody order Abducted by relative Runaway Presumed dead Human trafficking Footnote 5 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 (4,756,408) 2 2 0 0 21 20 2 6 4 5 2 4 2,258 1,184 0 0 0 0 148 94 21 14 3,787
British Columbia (5,581,127) 1 0 3 2 82 80 6 7 6 1 0 0 1,497 765 1 0 0 0 2,152 1,013 376 211 6,203
Manitoba (1,465,440) 0 0 0 0 10 11 5 2 1 5 1 1 1,689 722 0 1 0 0 116 84 28 14 2,690
New Brunswick (842,725) 1 0 0 0 8 4 1 1 0 2 0 0 503 592 0 0 0 0 60 69 5 8 1,254
Newfoundland and Labrador (540,418) 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 24 23 0 0 0 0 79 113 4 6 251
Nova Scotia (1,066,416) 0 0 0 0 3 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 339 131 0 0 0 0 19 5 15 4 518
Ontario (15,801,768) 1 2 0 2 40 38 8 7 10 10 1 2 3,722 1,846 2 2 72 0 1,182 599 165 99 7,810
Prince Edward Island (175,853) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 6 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 19
Quebec (8,948,540) 3 4 2 4 14 9 1 3 18 6 0 1 2,002 3,181 0 0 0 2 318 365 83 165 6,181
Saskatchewan (1,218,976) 3 5 0 0 5 4 0 0 3 3 1 1 2,886 1,849 2 0 0 0 548 357 19 16 5,702
Yukon (45,148) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 3
Northwest Territories (44,760) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 1 0 0 0 0 4 4 0 0 16
Nunavut (40,817) 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 3
Total (40,528,396) 11 13 5 8 187 167 24 26 42 32 5 9 14,937 10,301 5 3 72 2 4,627 2,707 717 537 34,437

Fast facts

  • 60% of all missing children/youth reports in 2023 involved females.
  • 56% of missing children/youth reports in 2023 were removed from CPIC within 24 hours, while 90% were removed within a week. Footnote 7
  • In 2023, Saskatchewan had the highest number of missing children/youth reports per capita, with 491 reports per 100,000 people, followed by Manitoba with 180 reports per 100,000 people. Yukon and Nunavut had the lowest, with 7 reports per 100,000 people. Footnote 8
  • 78% of all missing children/youth subjects in 2023 were between the ages of 14-17.
  • 73% of all missing children/youth subjects in 2023 were identified as runaways, 59% of whom were female.
  • 23% of missing children/youth in 2023 were Indigenous and 70% of all missing Indigenous children/youth were female. Footnote 9
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