We're quite fortunate to be in the midst of Qanuippitaa, a national Inuit health strategy. We're doing fieldwork now across our four regions. Fieldwork has already been completed in the Inuvialuit and the Nunatsiavut regions. This is building off of the international polar year Inuit health surveys that were point-in-time captures of Inuit health and wellness across Inuit Nunangat.
We are now doing a health survey that will be stable and sustainable. We hope to do it every four to five years. We're in the midst of creating that first cohort, that first summary data, that will allow us to be very clear about Inuit health status in 2023 or 2024. We relied on the aboriginal peoples survey and other related health surveys in the last 20 to 30 years. This is a definite step up.
Regarding our health status, we have huge challenges in regard to food insecurity and poverty. Our food insecurity rates are upwards of 70% for moderate and severe food insecurity. Our overcrowding rates are around 55%. Our tuberculosis rates are over 300 times the national average of those born in Canada. We also have a life expectancy that is over 10 years less than the Canadian life expectancy.
We have essential challenges when it comes to health. Some of that comes from lack of access. Our morbidity rate for cancer treatment is much higher than the Canadian average. The challenge that we face is health access. Most of our health care comes through referral structures. We have health centres in communities, but they consist of nurses who provide care and refer all patients who have any significant health challenge to regional centres. Often those regional centres are then referral centres to the south.
Much of the acute care that happens for Inuit across Canada happens in St. John's, Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Yellowknife. That system has saved lives, but in its construction is a barrier to upstream care and to ensuring that those who have significant illnesses can be diagnosed and treated quickly.
We also have challenges in the climate sense. We have less access to hunting, fishing and traditional foods. That has then caused challenges for our diet and also for the social fabric of our community and the way in which we share with one another, the way in which we pass down knowledge and information, and then the overall health of our people.