{
  "id": "life-expectancy",
  "category": "Health and well-being",
  "title": "Life expectancy at birth, Greater Victoria",
  "geography": "Greater Victoria local health area (411): Victoria, Esquimalt, Oak Bay, Saanich and View Royal",
  "scope": "region",
  "levels": [
    "Provincial (health system)",
    "Island Health",
    "People and families"
  ],
  "plain_question": "How many years can a baby born here expect to live, if death rates stay as they are now?",
  "value": 82.0,
  "display_value": "82.0",
  "unit": "years, 2021–2022",
  "period": "2021–2022",
  "period_start": "2021-01-01",
  "period_end": "2022-12-31",
  "comparison": {
    "previous_period": null,
    "previous_value": null,
    "change_percent": null
  },
  "trend": "context",
  "direction_good": "up",
  "right_direction": "A higher life expectancy means people live longer on average.",
  "trend_basis": "82.0 years in 2021–2022 (women 84.3, men 79.6). Island Health 81.3, B.C. 82.0 (Island Health, February 2025 profile, from Ministry of Health data).",
  "since_text": "Women 84.3, men 79.6. Island Health 81.3, B.C. 82.0.",
  "compare_text": "Island Health 81.3, B.C. 82.0",
  "breakdown": [
    {
      "label": "Women",
      "display_value": "84.3 years",
      "period": "2021–2022",
      "detail": "Island Health 84.0, B.C. 84.9."
    },
    {
      "label": "Men",
      "display_value": "79.6 years",
      "period": "2021–2022",
      "detail": "Island Health 78.7, B.C. 79.3."
    }
  ],
  "breakdown_title": "Women and men, 2021–2022",
  "caveats": [
    "Life expectancy at birth from the Ministry of Health, as printed in Island Health’s profile. It is an average over two years, so one year’s events move it little.",
    "The toxic drug crisis and the pandemic lowered life expectancy across B.C. after 2019; the profile notes a sharp decline since 2019–2020.",
    "Island Health overwrites the profile each year; this page reads the edition dated February 2025, which gives one period in its table. The profile’s chart of earlier periods prints values without their years, so they are not read."
  ],
  "charts": [],
  "series": [
    {
      "period": "2021–2022",
      "value": 82.0
    }
  ],
  "refresh_frequency": "Yearly (Island Health local health area profiles)",
  "source": {
    "name": "Island Health, Local Health Area Profile: Greater Victoria (411), February 2025",
    "url": "https://www.islandhealth.ca/node/1181",
    "dataset_url": "https://islandhealth.ca/sites/default/files/communications/lha%20profiles/greater-victoria-lha-profile.pdf",
    "download_url": "https://islandhealth.ca/sites/default/files/communications/lha%20profiles/greater-victoria-lha-profile.pdf",
    "locator": "Greater Victoria LHA Profile (February 2025), Health Status Summary, row “Life expectancy (years)”, columns BC, Island Health and 411",
    "reads": "Life expectancy (years), 2021–2022: BC 82.0, Island Health 81.3, 411 82.0",
    "page_url": "https://islandhealth.ca/sites/default/files/communications/lha%20profiles/greater-victoria-lha-profile.pdf#page=38",
    "page": 38
  },
  "licence": {
    "name": "Public data, not under an open licence. Used with attribution.",
    "url": "https://www.islandhealth.ca/node/1181",
    "open": false,
    "note": "Island Health publishes the profiles on its Local Health Area Profiles page and asks readers to contact its population health team about discrepancies; no separate terms of use are posted."
  },
  "verified_text": [
    "Life expectancy (years) 2021 - 2022 82.0 81.3 82.0",
    "Female life expectancy (years) 2021 - 2022 84.9 84.0 84.3",
    "Male life expectancy (years) 2021 - 2022 79.3 78.7 79.6"
  ],
  "data_published": "2025-05-23",
  "retrieved_at": "2026-11-13T05:22:32Z",
  "attribution": "Source: Island Health, Local Health Area Profile: Greater Victoria (411), February 2025. Public document, used with attribution; not endorsed by the publisher.",
  "licence_type": "public",
  "source_tier": 1,
  "measure_kind": "outcome",
  "better_measure": null,
  "status_rule": {
    "rule": "One rule for every measure: a change smaller than 5% of the earlier value, or smaller than the agency's own margin of error, is “About the same”; no change is calculated across a marked break in a series; homelessness estimates, prices, staffing and comparison pages are shown for context without a label.",
    "reason": "Shown for context, without a better or worse label.",
    "threshold_percent": 5.0
  },
  "changes": {
    "year": null,
    "five_year": null
  },
  "direction": {
    "type": "outcome",
    "rule": "Outcome measures read Better, Worse or About the same; published government targets read Ahead of, On or Behind target; value-judgement measures read Rising, Falling or Steady in a neutral colour. A change smaller than the agency's own margin of error, or otherwise smaller than 5% of the earlier value, is About the same (or Steady). No change is calculated across a marked break in a series.",
    "key": "nolabel",
    "label": "No label yet",
    "vs": null,
    "cur": "2021–2022",
    "why": "There is no earlier figure in the same series to compare with yet. A direction label needs at least two comparable periods, so none is shown until a second one is published.",
    "long_why": "There is only one period so far."
  },
  "benchmark": {
    "rung": 5,
    "rung_name": "No target found",
    "as_of": "2026-11-12",
    "items": [
      {
        "kind": "none",
        "label": "No target found",
        "text": "No target for life expectancy found in the Ministry of Health 2026/27 to 2028/29 Service Plan (February 2026), as of November 12, 2026. Who could set one: the Province of B.C.",
        "area": "British Columbia",
        "source": {
          "title": "Ministry of Health 2026/27 to 2028/29 Service Plan",
          "publisher": "Province of B.C.",
          "date": "February 2026",
          "url": "https://www.bcbudget.gov.bc.ca/2026/sp/pdf/ministry/hlth.pdf",
          "terms": "https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/home/copyright",
          "refresh": "Yearly, with the provincial budget (February)",
          "licence": "Public document, not under an open licence. Quoted with attribution.",
          "checked": "2026-11-12",
          "key": "moh_sp"
        },
        "documents_checked": null
      }
    ],
    "drawn": [],
    "rule": "Highest rung found is shown; the site never sets a target. Methods, Targets."
  },
  "benchmarks": [],
  "highest_rung": 5,
  "no_target_found": {
    "documents_checked": [
      "moh_sp"
    ],
    "checked_on": "2026-11-12",
    "who_could_set": [
      "Province of B.C."
    ]
  },
  "decided_by": [
    {
      "body": "BC",
      "name": "Province of B.C.",
      "decides": "Sets provincial standards for health services and appoints Island Health’s board.",
      "laws": [
        {
          "key": "haa3",
          "label": "Health Authorities Act, s. 3",
          "url": "https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/96180_01#section3"
        },
        {
          "key": "haa4",
          "label": "Health Authorities Act, s. 4",
          "url": "https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/96180_01#section4"
        }
      ],
      "last": null,
      "next": null
    },
    {
      "body": "IH",
      "name": "Island Health",
      "decides": "Plans and runs health services in the region: which services, which facilities and the programs that deliver them.",
      "laws": [
        {
          "key": "haa5",
          "label": "Health Authorities Act, s. 5",
          "url": "https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/96180_01#section5"
        }
      ],
      "last": null,
      "next": null
    },
    {
      "body": "CAN",
      "name": "Government of Canada and Parliament",
      "decides": "Pays the Canada Health Transfer to the Province, on the conditions set in the Canada Health Act.",
      "laws": [
        {
          "key": "fpfaa",
          "label": "Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act, Part V.1",
          "url": "https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/F-8/FullText.html"
        },
        {
          "key": "cha",
          "label": "Canada Health Act, s. 5 and 7",
          "url": "https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-6/FullText.html"
        }
      ],
      "last": null,
      "next": null
    },
    {
      "body": "NONE",
      "name": "No government decides this directly",
      "note": "Health also depends on income, housing, habits and genes, which no single government decides."
    }
  ],
  "main_decision_maker": "Province of B.C.",
  "label_1y": {
    "key": "nolabel",
    "label": "No label yet"
  },
  "label_long": null,
  "target_line": {
    "form": 4,
    "text": "No target found",
    "target": null,
    "gap": null,
    "comparison": null,
    "applies_here": false,
    "note": null
  }
}