Skip to main content

Table 1 Characteristics of mothers and infants for singleton live births by maternal birthplace: Canada (excluding Ontario), 1990–2005

From: Infant mortality among the Canadian-born offspring of immigrants and non-immigrants in Canada: a population-based study

  

Foreign-Born by Mother’s Country/Region of Birth

 

Canadian-born

US

North Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa

Haiti

Non-Spanish Caribbean

Latin America

Pakistan

South Asia

Central/West Asia

East/SE Asia

Europe

Rest of the World

Infant sex, %

 Male

51.3

51.3

51.6

50.7

50.1

50.4

51.5

51.2

52.7

51.2

51.7

51.5

50.9

 Female (reference)

48.7

48.7

48.4

49.3

49.9

49.6

48.5

48.8

47.3

48.8

48.4

48.5

49.1

Mother's Age, %

 Under 20

7.0

3.6

0.9

1.9

3.7

3.9

5.5

1.2

0.9

3.5

1.1

1.5

1.8

 20–24 (reference)

21.6

16.5

10.8

13.1

15.7

16.6

21.2

19.9

22.4

21.1

8.1

11.0

17.4

 25–29

34.1

30.6

29.8

32.2

27.9

29.4

31.1

37.7

40.3

33.9

27.0

31.0

34.2

 30–34

26.6

30.5

35.1

35.0

30.0

30.1

27.0

27.6

26.1

27.7

38.1

35.5

31.3

 35+

10.7

18.8

23.5

17.9

22.8

20.0

15.2

13.6

10.4

13.8

25.7

21.0

15.3

Marital status, %

 Single

37.7

14.7

2.7

11.9

31.6

31.0

18.0

0.8

1.4

2.0

8.1

11.4

5.7

 Married (reference)

56.5

80.6

95.5

82.6

59.3

63.8

76.1

97.8

95.4

96.4

86.7

83.6

88.5

 Other/Missing

5.8

4.8

1.8

5.6

9.1

5.3

5.9

1.4

3.2

1.6

5.2

5.0

5.9

Parity, %

 Primiparous

43.6

37.0

42.1

38.4

36.8

38.2

38.1

33.3

45.1

34.6

47.2

41.9

44.3

 Multiparous (reference)

55.3

62.1

57.7

61.2

63.3

61.3

61.7

66.4

54.7

64.5

52.5

57.6

55.4

 Missing

1.1

0.9

0.2

0.5

0.0

0.6

0.3

0.3

0.2

0.8

0.3

0.5

0.3

Province of residence, %

 Québec (reference)

38.0

19.5

88.3

35.8

99.2

45.3

44.5

34.9

14.5

59.6

14.7

28.2

3.3

 British Columbia

16.3

32.5

3.3

26.0

0.2

11.4

18.7

23.4

62.8

8.7

51.0

33.9

63.3

 Prairiesa

31.7

33.5

6.7

34.8

0.5

38.7

35.2

39.4

21.5

26.4

32.8

32.6

30.7

 Otherb

14.0

14.5

1.7

3.4

0.1

4.7

1.6

2.3

1.2

5.3

1.6

5.3

2.8

Birth cohort, %

 1990–1993 (reference)

28.9

31.2

17.2

18.0

26.6

29.4

22.4

11.4

19.4

24.0

17.9

30.2

19.3

 1994–1997

25.9

26.8

20.6

22.3

27.6

27.6

25.6

18.3

25.5

25.7

27.4

26.2

30.1

 1998–2001

22.8

21.9

20.4

25.4

23.7

23.5

23.6

27.8

26.3

23.5

26.4

22.1

26.4

 2002–2005

22.3

20.0

41.7

34.3

22.1

19.2

28.4

42.6

28.8

26.8

28.3

21.5

24.2

Total number of births

2,856,394

41,601

17,991

24,339

20,057

10,499

38,702

7,500

68,558

27,491

138,024

108,515

10,970

Share of total births (%)

84.7

1.2

0.5

0.7

0.6

0.3

1.1

0.2

2.0

0.8

4.1

3.2

0.3

  1. Universe consists of singleton live births to women residing in Canada (excluding Ontario) with non-missing information on mother’s birthplace and maternal and infant characteristics
  2. χ2 statistic indicates that differences in proportions by maternal birthplace for all covariates are statistically significant at p < 0.001 level
  3. aPrairie provinces include Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Winnipeg
  4. bIncludes Atlantic provinces (Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland & Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick), Territories (Yukon, Northwest Territory, Nunavut), and unknown Canadian province of residence