Canada's breastfeeding dashboard
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Published: 2022-11-04
This dashboard is a companion piece to Canada’s Breastfeeding Progress Report 2022. It presents data about breastfeeding in Canada, including related factors such as age, education and immigration status. The data is from the 2017-2018 Canadian Community Health Survey. It reflects information gathered from survey respondents who were between the ages of 15 and 55, identified as female, and had given birth in the previous 5 years.
On this page
Overview
Breastfeeding is important for the short-term and long-term health of babies, young children and parents. Experts recommendFootnote 1 that babies be fed:
- breast milk only (‘exclusive breastfeeding’) for the first 6 months of life
- breast milk for 2 years or longer, along with other age-appropriate foods beginning at 6 months
Global breastfeeding targets aim to increase the rate of 6-month exclusive breastfeeding to at least 50% by 2025, and to 70% by 2030Footnote 2Footnote 3.
Key findings in Canada
91%
62%
35%
88%
Technical note about confidence intervals
The data tables below each graphic include confidence intervals (CIs), which are statistical measures of how precise the estimates are.
The confidence interval provides a range of values that the true estimate would be expected to fall between, a certain percentage of the time, if the data was re-sampled in the same way. The narrower the range of the confidence interval, the more precise the estimate. All of the displayed confidence intervals are 95% probability.
Breastfeeding parents
Most parents in Canada start out breastfeeding. The map shows the breastfeeding rates in each province and territory.
Figure 1. Breastfeeding initiation by province and territory
Figure 1: Data table with confidence intervals
Table 1. Breastfeeding initiation by province and territory
| Province or territory | Rate | Confidence interval (CI) |
|---|
The following charts and tables show the percentage of parents who breastfed their newborns by various factors known to influence breastfeeding rates.
Figure 2. Breastfeeding initiation by demographic factor
Highest level of education
Indigenous status
Immigration status
Marital status
Age
Pre-pregnancy BMI
Figure 2: Data table with confidence intervals
Table 2. Breastfeeding initiation by demographic factor
Reasons for not breastfeeding
The following chart shows the reasons given by parents who decided not to breastfeed their newborns.
Figure 3. Reasons given for not breastfeeding
Figure 3: Data table with confidence intervals
Table 3. Reasons given for not breastfeeding
Stopping breastfeeding
Among parents who started out breastfeeding their newborns:
- 15% stopped within the first month
- 22% stopped between 1 and 6 months
The sharpest monthly decline in breastfeeding occurs during the first month of life.
Figure 4. Breastfeeding rate by month (baby’s age)
Figure 4: Data table with confidence intervals
Table 4. Breastfeeding rate by month (baby’s age)
Figure 5. Reasons given for stopping breastfeeding before 6 months
For those who stopped breastfeeding before 6 months, reasons for stopping included:
Figure 5: Data table with confidence intervals
Table 5. Reasons given for stopping breastfeeding before 6 months
Breastfeeding exclusively
Breastfeeding exclusively means that breast milk is the only food the baby eats. While most parents breastfed for at least 6 months, far fewer breastfed exclusively.
- 62% breastfed (either exclusively or not) for at least 6 months
- 35% breastfed exclusively for at least 6 months
The following chart shows the percentage of parents in each province and territory that breastfed for at least 6 months. It also shows the percentage who breastfed exclusively during those 6 months.
Figure 6. Percentage of parents who breastfed for at least 6 months by province and territory
Figure 6: Data table with confidence intervals
Table 6. Percentage of parents who breastfed for at least 6 months by province and territory
The charts below show breastfeeding rates by factors known to influence breastfeeding rates.
Figure 7. Percentage of parents who breastfed for at least 6 months by demographic factors
Highest level of education
Rural or urban
Marital status
Pre-pregnancy BMI
Age
Immigration status
Figure 7: Data table with confidence intervals
Table 7. Percentage of parents who breastfed for at least 6 months by demographic factors
Vitamin D supplements
It’s recommended that all breastfed babies receive extra vitamin D, and most breastfed babies in Canada do receive it.
Figure 8. Percentage of breastfed infants given vitamin D supplements, by province and territory
Figure 8: Data table with confidence intervals
Table 8. Percentage of breastfed infants given vitamin D supplements, by province and territory
| Province or territory | Rate | Confidence interval (CI) |
|---|
Figure 9. Percentage of breastfed infants given vitamin D supplements, by breastfeeding parent's age and education
Age
Highest level of education
Figure 9: Data table with confidence intervals
Table 9. Percentage of breastfed infants given vitamin D supplements, by breastfeeding parent's age and education
Related resources
- 10 Great Reasons to Breastfeed
- 10 Valuable Tips for Successful Breastfeeding
- Breastfeeding resources for health professionals
- Nutrition for healthy term infants: Recommendations from birth to six months
- Rates of and factors associated with exclusive and any breastfeeding at six months in Canada: an analysis of population-based cross-sectional data