MMIWG Statistics Canada [2026]

Statistics Canada 2025 recorded 71 Indigenous women killed in 2024, up from 50 in 2023. Indigenous people made up 30% of all homicide victims that year, despite being about 5% of Canada’s population, a rate of 10.84 per 100,000 versus 1.91 nationally. This post compiles MMIWG statistics for Canada: homicide-rate comparisons, First Nations, Inuit, and Métis breakdowns, and federal progress on the National Inquiry’s 231 Calls for Justice.

What is MMIWG and who is affected in Canada?

MMIWG stands for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, Two-Spirit and gender-diverse people in Canada. The term names the population at the centre of the federal National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, whose final report was delivered June 3, 2019. The Government of Canada states this population faces violence at rates far higher than those of non-Indigenous women.

That comparison comes from a June 2024 Government of Canada 2024 update on the Calls for Justice. The Inquiry itself drew on testimony from more than 2,380 family members, survivors, and Knowledge Keepers gathered over two years of hearings, according to a Government of Canada backgrounder 2019. Indigenous women made up 4.3% of Canada’s female population in 2011. Yet they represented roughly 16% of all female homicide victims between 1980 and 2012, per the RCMP’s 2014 National Operational Overview.

How many Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls are there in Canada?

The RCMP’s 2014 National Operational Overview identified 1,181 police-recorded cases of missing or murdered Aboriginal women and girls. That total breaks down into 1,017 homicide victims between 1980 and 2012, plus 164 women considered missing at the time of the report’s data cutoff, per RCMP 2014.

Indigenous women represent 10% of all women in Canada missing for at least 30 days, or 174 cases. That’s a far higher share than their portion of the national female population, per Department of Justice Canada 2017. That RCMP total remains the most-cited historical count because Statistics Canada’s missing-persons data, covered in missing persons statistics Canada, does not break out Indigenous-specific case volumes annually. The broader missing persons research hub tracks how those national totals are reported and revised each year.

How the MMIWG homicide rate compares to non-Indigenous women and girls

Statistics Canada Juristat 2023 found First Nations, Métis, and Inuit women and girls were killed at a rate of 4.27 per 100,000 population between 2009 and 2021. That is six times the rate of 0.73 per 100,000 recorded for non-Indigenous women and girls over the same period.

A separate measure, using General Social Survey data for 2015 to 2020, found a homicide rate of 8.64 per 100,000 for Indigenous people of all genders. Statistics Canada 2022 calculated that figure as also six times higher than the 1.39 per 100,000 rate for non-Indigenous people. The two ratios describe different populations and periods, not the same measurement.

A third figure covers a broader outcome. A June 2024 federal update states that Indigenous women, girls, Two-Spirit and gender-diverse people are 12 times more likely to go missing or be murdered than non-Indigenous women. The figure comes from Government of Canada 2024, which restates a figure originating in the National Inquiry’s 2019 final report rather than a Statistics Canada calculation; neither that update nor the Government of Canada backgrounder publishes the underlying methodology, so the 12x figure should be read as the Inquiry’s own finding rather than an independently verified rate. That combined “go missing or be murdered” measure is not directly comparable to the homicide-only rates above.

First Nations, Inuit, and Métis breakdown of MMIWG homicide victims

Between 2009 and 2021, 490 Indigenous women and girls were identified as homicide victims, according to Statistics Canada 2023. Of those, 60% were First Nations, 8% were Inuit, and 7% were Métis. Police did not know or did not report the Indigenous group for the remaining 24% of victims.

Violent victimization rates also vary by group. Statistics Canada’s 2019 General Social Survey found the highest rates among Métis women (15%) and Inuit women (9.7%). First Nations women reported 5.9%, compared with 4.9% for non-Indigenous women. That survey measures sexual assault, robbery, and physical assault self-reported in the 12 months before the survey, a broader category than the homicide data above. Overrepresentation is not limited to adults; the age and province breakdown for missing Indigenous children is covered separately in missing children statistics Canada.

Why the true number of MMIWG cases remains uncertain

The RCMP’s own 2014 report acknowledges limits in its data. Before its national review project, cases with an unknown or unavailable Aboriginal-origin variable made up 20% of records nationally. The review brought that share down to 1.5%, per RCMP 2014. How many cases were missed before that review is difficult to establish.

A similar gap persists in current data. For 24% of Indigenous women and girls counted as homicide victims between 2009 and 2021, police either did not know or did not report the victim’s Indigenous group. That gap comes from the same Statistics Canada Juristat 2023 data. Police determine Indigenous identity from status cards, family or community information, band records, or forensic evidence, not from a single standardized source.

Canada’s national missing-persons platform adds another layer of undercounting. The RCMP’s Canada’s Missing platform states directly that it “does not include a listing of profiles for all missing persons and unidentified remains in Canada.” Cases appear only when the investigating police service, coroner, or medical examiner agency requests publication.

The National Inquiry into MMIWG and the 231 Calls for Justice

The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls delivered its final report on June 3, 2019. It contained 231 individual Calls for Justice, according to a Government of Canada backgrounder. The Calls for Justice were directed at:

• Federal, provincial, territorial, and Indigenous governments
• Institutions, including justice, policing, health, and social services
• Social service providers
• Industries and employers
• All Canadians

The Inquiry’s final report also concluded that the violence it documented amounts to what it called a race, identity, and gender-based genocide against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people, a finding the Government of Canada has publicly accepted.

Implementation of those calls, and how much federal funding has followed, is covered in the next section.

How MMIWG homicide cases are handled differently in the justice system

Police laid or recommended a first-degree murder charge in just 27% of homicides where the victim was an Indigenous woman or girl. That compares to 54% of homicides involving non-Indigenous victims, per Statistics Canada 2023. Global News 2023, reporting on the same study, put it directly: police laid that top charge about half as often when the victim was Indigenous.

Manslaughter charges were twice as common in homicides of Indigenous women and girls (41%) as in homicides of non-Indigenous women and girls (20%) over the same period. The average custody sentence was three years shorter for cases with Indigenous victims: 11.4 years, versus 14.4 years for non-Indigenous victims’ cases, per Statistics Canada Juristat 2023.

The clearance-rate gap is smaller. Police cleared 87% of homicides of Indigenous women and girls between 2009 and 2021, compared to 90% of homicides of non-Indigenous women and girls, per Statistics Canada Juristat 2023. The charge-severity and sentencing gaps above are wider than the clearance-rate gap, meaning the disparity shows up more in prosecution outcomes than in whether a case gets solved.

Federal government progress and funding on the Calls for Justice

In a June 2024 update, the Government of Canada announced a Red Dress Alert pilot to notify the public when an Indigenous woman, girl, or Two-Spirit person goes missing. The pilot was co-developed with the Government of Manitoba and Indigenous partners, backed by $1.3 million through Budget 2024, per Government of Canada 2024.

That same update reported two other funded projects tied to specific Calls for Justice. Federally funded broadband projects had reached more than 3,000 Indigenous households, addressing Call for Justice 5.5. Close to 100 Indigenous communities and organizations had been funded to improve midwifery services and infrastructure, addressing Call for Justice 3.2, per Government of Canada 2024.

Those three initiatives address a small fraction of the 231 total Calls for Justice, and the government’s own update frames the work as ongoing.

What this means for families and investigators

Canada’s national missing-persons platform, canadasmissing.ca, is operated by the RCMP’s National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains. The RCMP describes the centre as the body that “assists law enforcement, medical examiners and chief coroners with missing persons and unidentified remains investigations across the country.”

Case profiles on that platform are published only at the request of the investigating police, coroner, or medical examiner agency. Any private search assistance a family pursues works alongside the police service of jurisdiction, not in place of it. As licensed PIs, we see this most often when a family wants documentation, records searches, or witness outreach to support an active police file, not a parallel investigation. That distinction matters for MMIWG cases specifically, given how much of the data above traces back to gaps in what police recorded and reported in the first place.

Missing persons investigations — Licensed · Insured · Bonded — support families with additional documentation and outreach that complements an active police file, not a substitute for one.