• Topic
  • Published
  • Updated

Health spending

Health spending cyin_master

CIHI provides our stakeholders with trend analyses and short-term forecasts of health spending in Canada. CIHI’s analyses include overall health spending at national, provincial and territorial levels; details of health facility and regional health authority spending; and cost estimates for services provided to patients in hospitals. CIHI also tracks hospital financial performance and spending related to patient care.

Explore information on health spending, including reports, data tables and other key resources.

Featured materials

Hospital spending

  • Release summary
  • September 21, 2023
Take an in-depth look at hospital spending in Canada and discover emerging trends using data from the Canadian MIS Database (CMDB).

National health expenditure trends

  • Release summary
  • November 2, 2023
An overview of Canadian health spending trends, featuring comparative expenditure data at provincial, territorial and international levels.

Prescribed drug spending in Canada, 2023

  • Release summary
  • November 2, 2023
Take an in-depth look at prescribed drug spending in Canada in 2022 and learn about how different drug classes contribute to current trends in total public drug program spending.

Physicians

  • Health care providers
  • March 26, 2024
Physician data contributes to evidence-based planning and management of the health workforce. How many physicians are there in Canada? What are their average gross payments?

Patient Cost Estimator

  • Tool
  • October 26, 2023
Estimate the average cost of various hospital services, costs incurred by hospitals and the average cost of the average typical inpatient in an acute care facility. 

Data tables

See all data tables

Reports and releases

See all reports and releases

Health spending: Reports and releases

Health spending: Reports and releases cyin_master

This page lists health spending reports, stories, infographics and release summaries.

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Mental health care

  • Report
  • Published
The 2023 Commonwealth Fund survey of the general population explores lifestyle and economic factors that affect the need for mental health care in 10 countries, including Canada.

Commonwealth Fund survey, 2023

  • Release summary
  • Published
The 2023 Commonwealth Fund survey looked at the views and health care experiences of the general population age 18+ in 10 high-income countries, including Canada.

COVID-19 hospitalization and emergency department statistics

  • Release summary
  • Published
​​Explore the most recent information on hospitalizations and emergency department visits for patients with a diagnosis of COVID-19, including volumes, patient demographics and other key factors.

Shared Health Priorities

  • Project
  • Published
Working with the federal/provincial/territorial governments, CIHI is developing indicators to measure access to services for mental health and substance use, and home and community care.

Prescribed drug spending in Canada, 2023

  • Release summary
  • Published
Take an in-depth look at prescribed drug spending in Canada in 2022 and learn about how different drug classes contribute to current trends in total public drug program spending.

National health expenditure trends

  • Release summary
  • Published
An overview of Canadian health spending trends, featuring comparative expenditure data at provincial, territorial and international levels.

Health spending: Data tables

Health spending: Data tables cyin_master

This page lists data tables that provide information about health spending.

Showing 1 to 10 of 54 results

Health spending: Indicators

Health spending: Indicators cyin_master

This page lists CIHI’s indicators of health spending.

Showing 1 to 8 of 8 results

Corporate Services Expense Ratio (CSER)

  • Indicator
  • Published
This indicator measures the percentage of the legal entity's total expenses that were spent in administrative departments such as finance and human resources. A high percentage indicates that administrative costs are a large portion of total expenses; a…

Cost of a Standard Hospital Stay

  • Indicator
  • Published
This indicator gives the ratio of a hospital’s total acute inpatient expenses to the number of acute inpatient cases adjusted for resource use (RIW).

Heavy Drinking

  • Indicator
  • Published
Heavy drinking is defined as men who reported consuming 5 or more drinks or women who reported consuming 4 or more drinks on 1 occasion at least once a month in the past year. It is calculated for the population age 12 and older.

Health spending: Tools

Health spending: Tools cyin_master

This page lists CIHI’s performance reporting tools that contain health spending data.

Showing 1 to 4 of 4 results

Data Preview for Indicators Tool

  • Tool
  • Published
The Data Preview for Indicators web tool is used by stakeholders to review or validate their indicator results before they are made publicly available.

Patient Cost Estimator

  • Tool
  • Published
Estimate the average cost of various hospital services, costs incurred by hospitals and the average cost of the average typical inpatient in an acute care facility. 

Quick Stats

  • Tool
  • Published
Quick Stats are a series of free, publicly available reports that provide aggregate-level data about health care in Canada.

Your Health System: In Brief

  • Tool
  • Published
Your Health System: In Brief is an interactive health information tool that explores the five themes that Canadians told us were the most important.

Health spending: Data holdings

Health spending: Data holdings cyin_master

This page contains information about CIHI’s data holdings related to health spending.

Showing 1 to 9 of 9 results

National Health Expenditure Database metadata

  • Metadata
  • Published
Canadian health expenditures with international comparisons, as well as spending on hospitals, nursing homes, drugs and physicians funded by public and private sources.

National Physician Database metadata

  • Metadata
  • Published
Source, data coverage, data availability, data elements and data quality of the National Physician Database (NPDB).

Patient Level Physician Billing (PLPB) metadata

  • Metadata
  • Published
​​​Metadata information on the source, statement of purpose, data coverage, data availability, data elements and data quality of the Patient Level Physician Billing data.

Health spending: News and podcasts

Health spending: News and podcasts cyin_master

This page contains media releases, bulletins and podcast episodes about health spending.

Showing 1 to 10 of 16 results

Health Expenditure Data in Brief (PDF)

  • Bulletin
  • Published
​This table presents a summary of preliminary estimates of health expenditures for 2022 and 2023, and actual health spending figures for 2021.

Palliative Care in Canada — Bernard Lapointe and Philippe Miquel

  • Podcast episode
  • Published
In this episode of the CHIP, host Alya Niang speaks with McGill University professor Bernard Lapointe and documentary filmmaker Philippe Miquel about the state of palliative care in Canada and why it is such a critical part of health care.

Palliative Care in Canada — Dr. Naheed Dosani

  • Podcast episode
  • Published
In this episode of the CHIP, host Avis Favaro speaks with Dr. Naheed Dosani about the state of palliative care in Canada and why it is such a critical part of health care.

Virtual Care in Canada — Dr. Ewan Affleck

  • Podcast episode
  • Published
In this episode of the CHIP, host Avis Favaro speaks with Dr. Ewan Affleck about the future of virtual care in Canada and why he is so passionate about continuing its growth.

Virtual Care in Canada — Dr. Onil Bhattacharyya

  • Podcast episode
  • Published
In this episode of the CHIP, host Alya Niang speaks with Dr. Onil Bhattacharyya about the future of virtual care in Canada and why he is so passionate about continuing its growth.

Surgical Wait Times in Canada — Dr. Etienne Belzile

  • Podcast episode
  • Published
In this episode of the CHIP, host Alya Niang speaks with Dr. Etienne Belzile about the causes of surgical backlogs in Canada and what could be done to fix the problems for the long term.

Health spending: Education resources

Health spending: Education resources jtseng_master

Through our Learning Centre, CIHI provides opportunities for health professionals to understand our evolving reporting systems and the application of our standards, data and analytics. We offer many courses and resources for a variety of audiences, including clinicians, assessors, data submitters and analysts, decision-makers, policy planners and researchers.

Courses and resources are available in a variety of formats, including eLearning modules, PDF and page-based documents, live and recorded web conferences, and videos.

On this page:

Learning opportunities

Resources offered through the Learning Centre include the following: 

Access CIHI’s Learning Centre

Discover whether you can learn for free!

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Create a CIHI profile so our system can recognize your organization’s entitlements. By doing so, you will get a Learning Centre account — no extra steps needed!

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Browse our catalogues

With 300 learning products in a variety of areas, we’re sure to have something that meets your needs — and our online courses will always fit your schedule.

Visit the Education page 

Other education resources

Resources offered through CIHI include the following:

Showing 1 to 10 of 17 results

Canadian MIS Database (CMDB) User Guide (PDF)

  • User guide
  • Published
​The CMDB User Guide provides information on the composition, processing and use of data from the Canadian Management Information System (MIS) Database (CMDB).

CIHI Portal CMDB Metadata Dictionary (PDF)

  • Job aid
  • Published
​​Use this document to plan for report building and to understand attributes and metrics used to create reports with Portal’s Canadian MIS Database (CMDB) project.

Population Grouping Methodology in Action (PDF)

  • Information sheet
  • Published
​​This information sheet highlights the main applications of CIHI’s population grouping methodology using chronic health conditions as an example.

Hospital Harm FAQ (PDF)

  • FAQ
  • Published
Frequently asked questions related to the Hospital Harm project, including information on the new measure, associated improvement resource and pan-Canadian findings.

CIHI's Nursing Product Guide (PDF)

  • Resource collection
  • Published
A list of nursing products (e.g., report, Quick Stats, data tables, chartbook, infographic and methodology notes) and their intended audience and use.