News

The number of Canadians living with kidney failure continues to rise, up 29% since 2012*according to the latest annual statistics released by the Canadian Institute for Health Information’s Canadian Organ Replacement Register (CORR) for 2012 to 2021.

The data shows that 27% of those newly diagnosed with end-stage kidney disease in 2021 were late referrals, which means they began dialysis treatments within 90 days of their first visit with a nephrologist. This is partly attributable to the fact that symptoms often do not appear until after permanent damage has occurred.

“The continued increase in the number of Canadians diagnosed with kidney disease is cause for concern,” says Elizabeth Myles, National Executive Director of The Kidney Foundation of Canada. “We are deeply committed to improving awareness of kidney disease and its risk factors through our many programs such as webinars and other educational resources.”

The CORR report also revealed that 76% of the 4,043 Canadians on the waiting list for an organ transplant are waiting for a kidney and that the median wait time for a deceased donor kidney transplant in Canada is 3 years and seven months*.

“Becoming an organ donor can save as many as 8 lives,” notes Myles. “While the total number of organ donations and transplantations have increased over the last decades and numbers are nearing pre-pandemic levels, Canada is still not meeting the needs of thousands of Canadians awaiting life-saving transplantation as the number of recipients is still greater than the number of organ donors. There is an urgent need to improve our organ donor and transplantation system to save the lives of this underserved population. Just 42% of people on dialysis are alive after five years. Increasing transplantation rates is a matter of life and death for people with kidney failure.”

For a more comprehensive look at the latest statistics on kidney disease and organ donation in Canada, find out Why Kidney Disease Should Matter to You and Why Canada Needs More Organ Donors. A more comprehensive look at the information is provided in Facing the Facts 2023: highlights from the Annual Statistics on Organ Replacement in Canada.

* Excludes Quebec

Source: Canadian Institute for Health Information. Organ replacement in Canada: CORR annual statistics [product release].