The aim of this scoping review of Canadian literature is to examine how the Canadian public understands these seven key social determinants of health that we identified in Making the Connections and to identify gaps in the public’s understanding of the SODH and the research on this subject. Based on the findings, we discuss what we know about Canadian’s perceptions of the causes of poor health, why public understanding of the social determinants of health is important for policy, and what needs to be done to improve broad public understanding of the social determinants of health to improve health and health equity.