The 1918 influenza epidemic reached its height in Toronto in October 1918, when the city had about 490,000 residents. The Toronto Department of Health recorded roughly 1,750 deaths among about 150,000 cases, according to a 2007 study by the historian Heather MacDougall, who notes that the case count is probably an underestimate. Influenza was not a reportable disease under Ontario’s 1912 Public Health Act, so no complete count exists.
This article follows the autumn weeks in Toronto: the first recorded death, the closures ordered by the city’s medical officer of health, the debate over masks, and the figures that sources give differently. It contains no medical guidance. The wartime setting is covered in the article on Toronto in the First World War.
The pandemic in Canada
Parks Canada, which designated the Spanish Flu in Canada (1918 to 1920) a national historic event in 2018, states that approximately 50,000 people died in Canada, most of them young adults aged 20 to 40. It lists four waves: spring 1918, autumn 1918, spring 1919, and spring 1920. According to Parks Canada, the autumn wave was a mutated, highly infectious form of the virus and caused about 90 percent of the pandemic’s deaths. The same designation notes that poor coordination among military, political, and public health authorities hindered the response, and that the pandemic led to the creation of the federal Department of Health in 1919. The abstract of a 1977 study by Janice Dickin McGinnis, published in the Canadian Historical Association’s Historical Papers, likewise says that the crisis was sudden, that organizations had to improvise, and that this brought confusion over who was responsible for what.
The medical officer of health
Charles J. Hastings (1858 to 1931) led Toronto’s response. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography records that he was born in Markham Township, became Toronto’s medical officer of health in October 1910, and was elected president of the American Public Health Association in 1918. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography links his work on milk to the Ontario Milk Act of 1911 and notes that Toronto’s milk supply was held up as a model by October 1915. Before 1918 he had pressed dairies to pasteurize milk and had urged school medical inspections. His department had a staff of 319 people when the epidemic arrived, according to MacDougall.
Autumn 1918 in Toronto
MacDougall’s account, built on department records and newspapers, gives this sequence.
| Date (1918) | Event |
|---|---|
| September 29 | A schoolgirl dies at Toronto General Hospital, the first civilian death recorded |
| Early October | Within a week, more than 10,000 of the city’s 66,000 students and 1,630 teachers are ill |
| October 5 to 8 | Hastings travels to Boston, New York, and Washington to observe their responses |
| October 8 | Toronto Western Hospital is full |
| October 19 | Theatres, moving-picture shows, pool and billiard rooms, and bowling alleys are closed |
| October 23 | 54 of the department’s 319 staff are ill, including 22 nurses and four doctors |
| November 11 | Armistice is signed, and celebrations may have contributed to a later wave |
The Medical Officer of Health also ordered schools closed. They were to reopen on November 5, but a fuel shortage delayed the reopening by a week. Library book circulation was suspended while the buildings stayed open, churches held a single service on Sundays, and the University of Toronto closed, with fifth-year medical students assisting doctors.
Hospitals and home visits
By mid-October about half of Toronto General Hospital’s 676 patients were ill, 80 of its nurses had fallen sick, and three had died, MacDougall reports. Two hotels were converted into emergency hospitals, and a province-run training program produced volunteers who became known as the Sisters of Service. Department staff made 17,108 home visits. Munitions and war industries slowed, fuel became scarce, and the Board of Trade created an Influenza Fund. The history of the city’s children’s hospital is in the article on the Hospital for Sick Children.
Masks, quarantine, and the vaccine
Hastings did not order quarantine or isolation, MacDougall writes, because most early cases were military men at the base camp. He and a colleague did not consider public mask wearing justified, so Ontarians were not required to wear masks, unlike residents of Alberta and several American states. The Toronto World newspaper urged masks regardless. Hastings brought a vaccine based on the bacterium B. influenzae from New York, and Connaught Laboratories produced and tested it. MacDougall notes there was little clinical evidence that it made a difference, and the Dictionary of Canadian Biography says it failed to halt the epidemic. The article reports these decisions as recorded and does not rate them.
How many died in Toronto
Figures differ by source and method, as the list below shows.
- About 1,750 deaths from about 150,000 cases: Department of Health records, as reported by MacDougall (2007), who notes that the case count is probably an underestimate. The same study gives the death count and the case count in the same sentence and does not reconcile them with the second figure below.
- 2,715 deaths from influenza (1,408) and pneumonia (1,307) in October, which was 1,980 above the normal October rate of 735: a 1919 report in a medical journal cited by MacDougall.
- About 50 deaths per day at the peak: one newspaper report cited by MacDougall.
- Ontario as a whole: 300,000 cases and 8,705 deaths, according to Heritage Toronto (2020). This is a provincial figure, not a Toronto one.
The sources do not explain how each count was compiled. The second figure includes pneumonia deaths and is set against a normal month. A Georgia Straight article gives 1,750 for Toronto and about 50,000 for Canada without citing a record, so it is not relied on.
How many people died of the 1918 flu in Toronto?
The Department of Health’s records show about 1,750 deaths from about 150,000 cases. A 1919 medical journal report counted 2,715 influenza and pneumonia deaths for October alone, so the true figure depends on what is counted. Reporting was incomplete in 1918.
Did Toronto require masks in 1918?
No. According to MacDougall, Hastings and a colleague did not think public mask use was warranted, and Ontarians were not required to wear masks, unlike people in Alberta and several American states.
When did the epidemic peak in Toronto?
MacDougall describes peak activity in October 1918 and easing in early November. Closures in Toronto began on October 19 (Heritage Toronto adds that boards of health across Ontario ordered public places closed by October 16), and schools stayed shut until a delayed reopening after November 5.
How many Canadians died in the pandemic?
Parks Canada gives approximately 50,000 deaths in Canada between 1918 and 1920. Other sources use similar round numbers, and all are estimates.
Sources
- Heather MacDougall, “Toronto’s Health Department in Action: Influenza in 1918 and SARS in 2003,” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 62(1), 2007
- Parks Canada, “Spanish Flu in Canada (1918 to 1920) National Historic Event,” Government of Canada
- Dictionary of Canadian Biography, “Hastings, Charles John Colwell Orr,” vol. 16, Library and Archives Canada and University of Toronto
- Kristen McLaughlin, “Echoes of the Spanish Flu,” Heritage Toronto, May 19, 2020
- Janice P. Dickin McGinnis, “The Impact of Epidemic Influenza: Canada, 1918-1919,” Historical Papers / Communications historiques 12(1), Canadian Historical Association, 1977 (only the abstract was readable)
Related reading
- The 1847 typhus epidemic and Irish immigration
- The 2003 SARS outbreak in Toronto
- Toronto in the First World War
- Toronto in numbers, with year and source
- Overview of Toronto’s history
Last verified: October 2026
Cite this page
APA: History of Toronto. (2026, October 23). The 1918 Influenza Epidemic in Toronto: Facts and Figures. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/spanish-flu-1918-toronto
MLA: “The 1918 Influenza Epidemic in Toronto: Facts and Figures.” History of Toronto, 23 Oct. 2026, https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/spanish-flu-1918-toronto. Accessed .
Chicago: History of Toronto. “The 1918 Influenza Epidemic in Toronto: Facts and Figures.” Last modified October 23, 2026. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/spanish-flu-1918-toronto.
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