When it comes to missing persons in Canada the RCMP reports that any given year, around 70,000 to 80,000 people are reported missing. On some websites, you will find it says even 100,000. The Toronto Police service states that every year they investigate 4,300 missing person cases. The good news is that in a majority of cases, the people are found.
In Canada in 2020, 57% of missing adult reports involved males and 65% of adults who wandered off were men. In Ontario, the higher number of runaways wandering off, and 'unknown', are greater in the male population. In a broader sense, all three of those probable causes have the highest number of missing persons both male and female. While abduction and trafficking are on the list, they are quite rare compared to these causes. When it came to Human Trafficking in Ontario in 2020, the statistics pointed out that only females went missing due to that cause.
In Canada in 2016, 58% of missing person cases involved males. Like 2020, the probable causes with the highest numbers in Ontario overall was 'Runaway', 'Wandered Off', and Unkown'. All three specifically, like 2020, were higher in male cases than female. Again like 2020, all human trafficking cases involved females.
The main difference in both years was missing person cases involving parents with or without custody. In 2020, there were a few reported cases of 'Parental Abduction With Custody Order' and no cases of 'Parental Abudtcion Without Custody Order'. 2016 was the opposite. In 2016, Ontario reported no 'Abductions by Relatives", but there were in 2020.
Looking at Canada as a Whole...
British Columbia has the highest cases of missing people, with Ontario following closely behind at 14, 209. Nunavut had the least amount of persons missing at 5. Overall in 2020, 61, 643 people went missing, 29,645 adults and 31,998 children/youth.
In 2016, the opposite was shown, Ontario had the highest number of missing people at 18,465, with British Columbia extremely close behind at 18, 404. Nunavut had the lowest number of cases at 7. Overall 73, 398 people went missing in Canada in 2016, 27, 789 adults, 45, 609 children/youth.
When looking at both maps, there was a significant decrease in missing person cases from 2016 - 2020, besides New Brunswick, in which it increased. The reason for this, according to the Government of Canada, is quite possibly COVID. After researching and comparing various statistics and studies, they noticed there was a decrease in missing persons cases due to COVID restrictions. After studying the province of New Brunswick's numbers, they found that there is a 43% increase in runaway cases from males and boys in the months of March, July, and October. Currently, the province has no data as to why.
When we take a look at the broader scope of missing adults in Canada, you can see that in both 2016 and 2020, the probable cause 'Unkown' has a devastating amount of numbers. For our podcast guest, Allan Jeffery, this was his reality. His ex, the mother of his child, went missing for a number of days. All they had to rely on was the police and social media to get the word out and hope she was safe.
And Covid is no exception for missing people, although it could be a lot harder to locate them, there are many ways you can locate missing people, a few resources will be linked down below.
All this info can be used to help find missing people all across the world, including sites like:
Facebook Group - Missing Unidentified
Facebook Group - Unidentified and Unclaimed People
The Facebook groups linked above are a great way to keep up with found missing persons with no identities.
References:
Canada's Missing 2016 Fast Facts Sheet
Canada's Missing 2020 Fast Facts Sheet
Canada's Missing COVID Repercussions Publication
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