A Healthier Manitoba for All: 2025 Health Status of Manitobans Report
The path to a healthier Manitoba cannot be walked by the health sector alone. It will require a whole of-government and whole-of-society approach, grounded in equity, evidence, and empathy.
– Dr. Brent Roussin, Chief Provincial Public Health Officer
Executive Summary
This report invites Manitobans to view health not as simply the absence of disease, but as the foundation for a dignified and fulfilling life. Health encompasses the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, social, cultural, environmental, and economic well-being of individuals, families, and communities. By shifting the focus from individual illness to population health, we recognize that solutions to rising disease rates extend beyond clinical care and to the broader conditions that shape how people live, learn, work, and age across Manitoba.
The health-care system and population health approaches both play important roles in supporting the health of Manitobans. Generally, health-care providers focus on interventions to prevent disease and restore health in individual patients. In contrast, population health plays a distinct role in preventing disease and illness by understanding and improving the underlying conditions that lead to poor health outcomes.
“Health is not created in hospitals, but in homes, classrooms, workplaces, and communities.”
The overall health status of Manitobans continues to improve. Over the past 20 years, trends in life expectancy, infant mortality, premature mortality, and injury mortality have all significantly improved, however these improvements are not distributed equally. Inequities in health outcomes for those living in the Northern Health Region and those from the lowest income quintiles persist.
Spotlight on Unintentional Injury
Injuries can occur anywhere, but the greatest proportion happen at home, in play and in travel. Falls and transport-related injury are the two leading causes of unintentional injury hospitalization and death in Manitoba. The burden of injury for falls has a disproportionate impact on young children and older adults in Manitoba.
- Falls have consistently been the leading cause of injury-related hospitalization in Manitoba from 2019-20 to 2023-24. Manitobans aged 65+ represent over 60 per cent of these hospitalizations.
- In children, falls are the number one cause for injury hospitalizations, emergency department visits and acquired disabilities. Falls from playground equipment are the leading cause of fall-related injury in children up to age 14.
To learn about Manitoba’s unintentional injury rates including falls, refer to pages 124-133 of the report.
Recommendations
Improving the health and well-being of Manitobans requires action beyond the health-care system. Treating illness alone cannot reverse the growing burden of chronic disease or close long-standing health gaps. Real progress depends on coordinated policies across government that address the conditions shaping health, such as education, income, housing, environment, and community connection.
This report contains three recommendations to advance shared responsibility for the health and well-being of Manitobans by aligning government policies and priorities.
- Adopt a Formal Health in All Policies (HiAP) Framework
- Support Distinctions-Based Indigenous Health Status Reporting
- Institutionalize Determinants of Health Measurement and Reporting
To read the full report, visit: https://www.gov.mb.ca/cppho/reports/health-status-of-mb-report-2025.html
To read MCHP’s 2024 RHA Indicators Atlas, visit: http://mchp-appserv.cpe.umanitoba.ca/deliverable.php?referencePaperID=88776.