With nearly 10,000 cases, British Columbia, the focal point of the missing and murdered aboriginal women on and near the Highway of Tears, has the most reported missing persons incidents in Canada.
By comparison Ontario, Canadas most populous province, has 6,513 missing persons cases listed.
The data does not specify how many cases were resolved in 2015. However, the RCMP estimates 62 per cent of people on the missing persons lists are removed within 24 hours of being reported and 90 per cent are removed within a week.
In 2015, 2,157 people are classified as having wandered off usually the result of mental health issues like dementia. Another 5,657 adults are classified as runaways, usually people who left their home of their own accord.
The largest classification of missing people are listed as having disappeared for unknown reasons. Police have been unable to ascertain why 15, 294 Canadian adults 6,603 women and 8,691 men vanished in 2015.
However, RCMP Cpl. Julie Morel of the national centre for missing persons says the missing persons data isnt definitive, in part because the national database is relatively new. The unit was formed in 2010 and only began to publish national data on missing persons in 2013.
It really is the first time that we have a system and the tools in place to have everyone in law enforcement from coast to coast co-ordinate on missing persons, Morel says.
The information is compiled by an algorithm that searches the Canadian Police Information Centre, better known as CPIC, a national database used by all Canadian police services.
Any time an officer anywhere in Canada enters a missing persons case into CPIC, the algorithm adds the name to the list.
The centre has published missing persons statistics for the past three years, but used a different algorithm for 2015, making comparisons to past years problematic. Morel said the RCMP is also working to refine the algorithm to filter repeat information, because the same case can get entered into CPIC multiple times by multiple officers from several services. The data might may also currently include cases that have been reclassified from missing persons to, for example, a homicide.