One in Three (36%) Canadian Households Have No First Aid Training

Toronto, ON - Many Canadian households are not adequately prepared with first aid training in the event of an emergency, a new Ipsos survey on behalf of the Canadian Red Cross has found. Indeed, one in three (36%) Canadians say that nobody living in their household is trained in first aid. Four in ten (42%) say that one person in their household is trained, while the remaining two in ten (22%) have two (16%) or more trained first aiders living at home.

Older Canadians are least likely to have a trained first aider living at home: nearly half (47%) of Baby Boomers say that nobody in their household is trained in first aid, compared to 32% of Millennials and 27% of Gen X'ers. At the regional level, residents of Quebec (43%) and BC (42%) are most likely not to have any trained first aiders in their household, followed by residents of the Atlantic provinces (36%), Ontario (33%), Saskatchewan and Manitoba (33%), and Alberta (22%).

While most (75%) Canadians say they are at least somewhat confident (25% very/51% somewhat) that they would know what to do in an emergency first aid situation, such as seeing someone fall off a ladder or slip on some ice, just 25% are very confident suggesting most individuals have room for improvement in their first-aid skills. Conversely, 25% of Canadians admit they are not confident (4% not at all/ 20% not very) that they would know what to do in this type of situation. Men (82%) are significantly more likely to be at least somewhat confident in their emergency first aid abilities than women (69%).

In some emergency situations, there may not be an adult around to help. When it comes to children stepping in and providing first aid, Canadians are divided in terms of their confidence in the next generation's abilities. Less than half (47%) are confident (12% very/35% somewhat) that a child aged 17 or younger could help them if they were to experience a first aid emergency. Conversely, 53% are not confident (16% not at all/37% not very) that a child could help them in a first aid emergency situation. Millennials (50%) and Gen X'ers (51%) are more likely than Baby Boomers (40%) to be confident that a child could provide first aid in an emergency. Confidence is highest in Saskatchewan and Manitoba (62%) and lowest in Quebec (36%).

While some Canadians may lack of confidence in children's ability to help them in a first aid emergency, nine in ten (92%) agree (52% strongly/40% somewhat) that children should start learning about first aid and how to help people in their community as early as 9 years old.

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between August 30 and September 1, 2016, on behalf of Canadian Red Cross. For this survey, a sample of 1,005 Canadians from Ipsos' online panel was interviewed online. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within +/ - 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Canadian adults been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Sean Simpson
Vice President
Ipsos Public Affairs
416.572.4474
[email protected]

About Ipsos

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