Background - 2018 Fast Fact Sheet

Introduction

Since 2010, the National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains (NCMPUR) has produced the NCMPUR Fast Fact Sheet. This fact sheet provides a national breakdown of missing persons reports by province, age (child or adult), sex, and probable cause. The NCMPUR 2018 Fast Fact Sheet has been prepared using numbers generated by the national Missing Children/Persons and Unidentified Remains (MC/PUR) Database, which provides the necessary data and tools to coordinate a national approach to these investigations. MC/PUR includes occurrences which are currently open, and concluded occurrences ^{Footnote 1} only if they were open after May 16, 2014. This is the fourth year for which a full set of data exists in MC/PUR for statistical purposes.

The data in MC/PUR is derived from missing person transactions in the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC). Therefore, it is limited by the quality and types of data that agencies enter into CPIC, and the techniques used by MC/PUR to compile that data. CPIC transactions include repeat runaways, and situations where a single instance of a missing person may be entered and deleted multiple times by different agencies over a period of time (e.g., a child goes missing with the initial report being filed with one police service; however, further investigation indicates the file falls within another police service's jurisdiction). MC/PUR uses algorithms in an attempt to identify and eliminate duplicate data and produce more accurate statistics. These algorithms are different from those used before 2015, so retroactive comparison to years before 2015 will not be completely correct ^{Footnote 2}. An occurrence is considered as belonging to the year 2018 based on the reported Date Last Seen ^{Footnote 3}. The number of missing person subjects reported herein reflects a "point in time" and can change if records for 2018 cases are added, modified, or flagged as duplicate ^{Footnote 4}.

It is also important to note that in terms of probable cause, there is some subjectivity in the original CPIC data that populates MC/PUR, and it may not be consistently completed nor maintained by agencies.

While the NCMPUR anticipates that future fast fact sheets will be in a similar format to the one produced this year, the categories may change in future years to provide a more comprehensive picture of the missing person reports. As the statistics become more descriptive, retroactive comparisons to previous years may not be possible.

Four (4) female MP Subjects and one (1) male MP Subject were not included in this table as the province was classified under 'Other'.
Two hundred thirteen (213) missing adult reports were not included in this table as there was no probable cause entered.
Six (6) missing adults were not included in this table as the sex was unknown or other.

Fast facts:

• 57% of missing adult reports involve males.
• 68% of adults who wandered off were males.
• 60% of missing adult reports were removed within 24 hours, while 88% were removed within a week ^{Footnote 6}.
• British Columbia has the highest number of missing adult reports per capita with 246 reports per 100,000 people, followed by Northwest Territories with 161 reports per 100,000 people, while Nunavut has the lowest with 8 reports per 100,000 people.

Fifty-four (54) missing children reports were not included in this table as there was no probable cause entered.
Fifty one (51) missing children were not included in this table as the sex was unknown or other.

Fast facts:

• 58% of all missing children/youth reports involve females.
• 73% of missing children/youth reports (male and female) are runaways.
• 62% of missing children/youth reports were removed within 24 hours, while 92% were removed within a week ^{Footnote 8}
• 57% of all missing persons reports (male and female, adults and children) involve children.
• British Columbia has the highest number of missing children reports per capita with 667 reports per 100,000 people, 92% higher than missing adult reports in the province, followed by Saskatchewan with 458 reports per 100,000 people, while Prince Edward Island has the lowest with 10 reports per 100,000 people.