Background - 2020 Fast Fact Sheet

Introduction

The National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains (NCMPUR) 2020 Fast Fact Sheet provides a national breakdown of missing persons reports by province, age (child or adult), sex, and probable cause. It 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 ^{Footnote 1} which are currently open, and concluded occurrences only if they were open after May 16, 2014. This is the sixth 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 2020 based on the reported Date Last Seen. The number of missing person subjects reported herein reflects a "point in time" and can change if records for 2020 cases are added, modified, or flagged as duplicate ^{Footnote 3}.

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 and retroactive comparisons to previous years may not be possible.

This fact sheet has been compiled for NCMPUR by the Program Research and Development Unit (PRDU).

Fast facts:

• 57% of missing adult reports in 2020 involved males
• 65% of adults who wandered off in 2020 were males
• British Columbia had the highest number of adult runaway subjects
• 61% of missing adult reports in 2020 were removed within 24 hours, while 89% were removed within a week ^{Footnote 5}
• In 2020, British Columbia had the highest number of missing adult reports per capita, with 239 reports per 100,000 people, followed by the Yukon with 147 reports per 100,000 people. Prince Edward Island had the lowest, with nine (9) reports per 100,000 people

Fast facts:

• 60% of all missing children/youth reports in 2020 involved females
• 72% of all missing children/youth subjects in 2020 were runaways, 61% of which were female. Manitoba had the highest number of child/youth runaway subjects.
• 30 female missing children/youth subjects were related to human trafficking, 24 (80%) of which were in Ontario
• 63% of missing children/youth reports in 2020 were removed within 24 hours, while 92% were removed within a week ^{Footnote 7}
• 52% of all missing persons reports (all sexes, adults and children) involve children or youth
• In 2020, Manitoba had the highest number of missing children/youth reports per capita, with 491 reports per 100,000 people, followed by Saskatchewan with 327 reports per 100,000 people. Nunavut did not have any missing children or youth reported in 2020

Date modified:

2021-03-24