OTTAWA -- Canadians are living longer, with record life expectancies at birth for men of 76.3 years and for women of 81.7 years, AFP quoted Statistics Canada as saying Tuesday.

Life expectancies, taken from 1999 data collected by the federal agency, rose 0.2 years for both sexes compared to the previous year's data.

The gap in life expectancy between men and women, meanwhile, narrowed, closing from 5.5 years in 1998 to 5.4 years in 1999 and continuing a two-decade trend.

The western province of British Columbia had the highest life expectancy rates for both sexes, with men living an average of 77.3 years and women surviving for 82.6 years.

Canada's newest territory, Nunavut, had the shortest life expectancies at birth, with 67.7 for men and 70.2 for women, but the agency said the data should be interpreted with caution due to small underlying counts of births and deaths.

South of the border, U.S. males at birth have a life expectancy of 73.8 years, while women at birth are expected to live to 79.5 years old, according to 1998 data from the National Center for Health Statistics.

Heart disease or other circulatory system problems were Canada's leading cause of death (36 percent, 78,900), followed by cancer (28 percent, 61,650).

The number of suicides in Canada in 1999 rose 10 percent -- the biggest increase since 1986 -- with 40-year-olds accounting for almost one-quarter of the suicides, or 1,002 deaths. Teen suicides fell six percent to 284 deaths.