AI Analysis: Unmet health care needs by gender and age group

Executive Summary

Unmet health care needs in Canada nearly doubled from 5.1% in 2018 to 8.8% in 2024, peaking at 9.2% in 2022, with women consistently reporting higher rates than men throughout the entire period. Significant variation exists across regions and demographic subgroups, with percentage values ranging from 1.8% to 16.5% and 17 statistical outliers identified across the dataset. The strong correlation between year and unmet need percentage (r = 0.648) confirms that rising unmet health care needs represent a meaningful and sustained national trend rather than a statistical anomaly.

Key Findings

• Unmet health care needs in Canada nearly doubled over the study period, rising from 5.1% in 2018 to 8.8% in 2024, with a peak of 9.2% reached in 2022.
• Women+ consistently reported higher unmet health care needs than Men+ across all years, reaching 10.4% versus 8.1% for men at the 2022 peak — a persistent gender gap of roughly 1–2 percentage points annually.
• The average unmet need for Women+ (9.09%) was approximately 1.85 percentage points higher than for Men+ (7.24%), with women's values also showing greater spread (std 2.72 vs. 2.37 for men).
• Percentage values ranged widely from 1.8% to 16.5% across regions, genders, and age groups, indicating substantial inequality in health care access across Canadian demographics.
• The correlation between reference year and unmet need percentage was 0.648, confirming a strong and consistent upward trend over the 2018–2024 period.
• Raw counts and percentages showed only a weak correlation (0.062), meaning population size differences across regions make raw numbers an unreliable proxy for rates of unmet need.
• 17 data points were flagged as statistical outliers (z-score > 2) against a national mean of 8.16% and standard deviation of 2.63%, highlighting specific regions, genders, or years with unusually high or low unmet health care needs.