Photo: awmcphee · CC BY-SA 4.0Expect 78.3 years of life in the region around Barrhead, 3.2 under the typical Canadian town
The survey puts the region’s share in very good or excellent health at 48%, behind the 53% for Alberta. The town’s own part is the trip to care, and Barrhead is well placed: 0.7 km to a hospital on average, against 3.7 km typical. Health gives Barrhead a grade of C−, #435 of 474 in Alberta and #2,350 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Barrhead
A region that smokes more
Smoking is commoner around Barrhead than in the typical Canadian town’s region, and 14% of adults smoke every day. Conditions and habits ↓
A heavier load of illness
High blood pressure (22%) and diabetes (9.9%) push the region’s chronic-condition figure above the typical Canadian town’s. Conditions and habits ↓
Near a hospital
Few Canadian towns live as close to a hospital as Barrhead; from its centre of population the trip is 0.6 km. Getting care ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Barrhead grades C− for health
Each input ranked against Canadian towns of 2,500 or more: the region’s four, the town’s distance to a hospital.
The region’s four figures and the town’s distance to a hospital are each ranked against Canadian towns of 2,500 or more, then averaged. Its place: #435 of 474 in Alberta and #2,350 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
How the grade works
Health is graded as a regional score, labelled as such: very good or excellent self-rated health, chronic conditions (arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure averaged) and smoking from the Canadian Community Health Survey, each age-standardised so an older region isn’t marked down for age alone, and life expectancy at birth, all for the health region. The residents’ average distance to a hospital is the one input measured for the town itself, so towns in one region can still differ.
In the region, high blood pressure (22%) and diabetes (9.9%)
Long-term conditions and habits as the region’s adults reported them; the tick marks the province.
Conditions and weight · 2023/2024
Habits · 2023/2024
More adults report obesity than across Alberta: 41%, the province 32%. At 25%, heavy drinking beats the provincial 19%.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (table 13-10-0972), as published, not adjusted for age; obesity from reported height and weight. The anxiety disorder figure is the 2021/2022 estimate: Statistics Canada found the latest too unreliable to publish here.
The nearest hospital is 0.7 km from the average home in Barrhead
Straight-line distances from each part of Barrhead, weighted by who lives there.
Compared with 3.1 km for the typical town in Alberta and 3.7 km for the typical Canadian town, Barrhead is on the near side. Few clinics are listed in Alberta, so the distance to one reads longer than it is.
Hospitals and clinics: Statistics Canada, Open Database of Healthcare Facilities. Pharmacies: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Straight-line distances from each dissemination area, weighted by its 2021 population.
About as long-lived as regions this deprived, if slightly less
These are health regions, 102 of them, not towns: the survey and life expectancy are published that way, so the dot for Barrhead’s region, on the line, stands for every town in it.
Placed among 102 regions by deprivation (correlation −0.83), the region Barrhead belongs to lives about as long as its score of 3.7 predicts: 78.3 years, the trend 78.5. Its 10 closest matches on deprivation lean longer-lived: 7 of them above it, a median of 78.9. Higher incomes, shorter lives: about $112,000 a household, above most regions’, with a life expectancy below most; income and lifespan correlate at only 0.14 across regions.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, 2022/2024, by health region. Deprivation: Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation 2021 (situational vulnerability), averaged over each region’s towns by their residents; income: 2021 Census median household income, averaged the same way. The averages and the line are TownRatings calculations.
Life expectancy across the 5 health regions in Alberta
What Statistics Canada publishes above the town: life expectancy for each health region in Alberta, and the deprivation index for the town’s own areas.
Life expectancy at birth by health region · 2022/2024
This is the shortest-lived of the 5 regions in Alberta, 4.7 years behind the first at 83.0.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
Statistics Canada scores every small area from 1 to 5 on each dimension; Barrhead’s bars are its residents’ average, shown and not graded.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
Self-rated health trails Alberta: 49% very good or excellent, against 54%
The survey’s answers for the region as given, each beside the province’s (the tick).
Share of adults, as answered · 2023/2024
Mental health looks weaker than in the province: 48% rate it very good or excellent, against 52% in Alberta, and 24% find most days quite stressful.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Barrhead is 3rd of 40 towns its size for nearness to a hospital
The 40 Canadian towns nearest its population (4,681 to 4,842 people), nearest a hospital first; their median is 9.6 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North End East ON B+ | 4,816 | 0.4 km | 53% |
| 2 | Central McDougall AB B+ | 4,802 | 0.6 km | 51% |
| 3 | Barrhead AB C− | 4,768 | 0.7 km | 48% |
| 4 | Richmond AB A+ | 4,811 | 0.8 km | 56% |
| 5 | Kindersley SK B | 4,740 | 1.1 km | 54% |
| 40 | Hampton NB D | 4,754 | 32 km | 43% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Barrhead
The places around, with the distance to a hospital and their regions’ figures. Tap a town for its health page.
| Town | Hospital | Very good health | Life exp. | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barrhead | 0.7 km | 48% | 78.3 | C− |
| Barrhead County No. 11 8.5 km | 17 km | 48% | 78.3 | D |
One health region covers Barrhead and every place in the table, so the survey and life-expectancy columns read the same. Barrhead County No. 11 is the furthest from care, 17 km to Barrhead’s 0.7 km.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Distances are straight lines. Each small census area is measured as the crow flies to the nearest facility and weighted by its 2021 residents, so real trips run longer.
- Adjusted for age. The grade’s three survey shares are age-standardised to Canada’s adults, so an older region isn’t marked down for age alone, while the survey charts show answers as given.
- Deprivation is context. The Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation (2021) is context, never graded, and the territories have none.
- Regional figures. The survey figures and life expectancy are published for the health region, so every town in it shares them and only the distances are Barrhead’s own.
- Who the survey asks. People on reserves and in institutions, full-time military members and the residents of Nunavik and Eeyou Istchee aren’t interviewed by the survey.
- What counts as a hospital. Facility locations come from Statistics Canada’s open database; records without coordinates sit at their postal code, and not every hospital has an emergency room.
Questions about health in Barrhead
What is the life expectancy in Barrhead?
For the health region that includes Barrhead, women can expect 80.9 years and men 76.1 (2022/2024).
How is Barrhead’s Health Grade worked out?
It will once Canada’s single grading run is done, measured on the region’s survey and life expectancy and on how far Barrhead’s homes are from a hospital, against the typical Canadian town.
How healthy is Barrhead?
All four of the region’s figures sit on the less healthy side of the typical Canadian town’s. The three chronic conditions the grade counts average 21% of adults.
How far is Barrhead from a hospital?
A pharmacy is 1.0 km from the average resident of Barrhead, as the crow flies; clinic lists here are too thin to measure.
Sources: Statistics Canada, Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (13-10-0972) · Statistics Canada, life expectancy 2022/2024 (13-10-0988) · Statistics Canada, health regions 2023 (82-402-X) · Statistics Canada, Open Database of Healthcare Facilities · pharmacies © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Statistics Canada, Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation 2021. Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).