‘Tis the season to be jolly and for many Canadians, that means getting together with family and friends for good cheer and drink.
If you are driving this holiday season, we have some data for you to mull over before you get behind the wheel.
The rate of police-reported incidents of impaired driving rose by almost one-fifth (+19%) from 2018 to 228 incidents per 100,000 Canadians in 2019, just prior to the pandemic. The rate of alcohol-impaired driving increased by 15%, while the rate of drug-impaired driving increased by 43% in this first year since the legalization of cannabis.
The police-reported rate of impaired driving in 2019 was the highest in nearly a decade.
Police services in Canada reported 85,673 incidents of impaired driving in 2019, which caused the death of 155 people and injured 540.
Prince Edward Island had the highest rate of impaired driving at 645 incidents per 100,000 population, nearly three times greater than the national average. Saskatchewan followed, with 539 impaired driving incidents per 100,000 population. However, these rates remain lower than those in the territories. In the Northwest Territories, for example, the rate reached 3,139 incidents per 100,000 population.
Ontario (104 incidents per 100,000 population), Quebec (176) and Manitoba (310) had the lowest rates of impaired driving.
Our energy and sales data show that Canadians overall drove a lot less during the first year of the pandemic than they did a year earlier.
Police agencies across Canada reported that impaired driving incidents were down 10.5% in 2020 from a year earlier.
Impaired driving rates for 2021 will be released in the summer of 2022.
For further reading
Contact information
For more information, contact the Statistical Information Service (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).