Photo: Grant Berg · CC BY-SA 3.0For health, Birch Hills County sits behind 97% of Canadian towns
In the health survey, 48% of adults in the region rate their health very good or excellent, fewer than Alberta’s 53%. For Birch Hills County itself, the measure is access: 39 km to the nearest hospital on average, with 100% of homes beyond 30 km. The Health grade for Birch Hills County is D−.
What stands out about health in Birch Hills County
Life expectancy below the norm
Life expectancy in the region around Birch Hills County runs 3.2 years behind the typical Canadian town’s, and at 65 people can expect 19.7 more years (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
A long way to hospital
Distance is Birch Hills County’s own health question: 100% of residents live beyond 30 km of a hospital, and the trip from its centre is 37 km. Getting care ↓
A region that smokes more
Smoking is commoner around Birch Hills County than in the typical Canadian town’s region, and 14% of adults smoke every day. Conditions and habits ↓
More chronic 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 ↓
From Statistics Canada: the health survey and life expectancy for the health region, the deprivation index for the town; distances from the healthcare facilities database and OpenStreetMap.
Birch Hills County grades D− 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.
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.
Longest and shortest lives among the 5 regions in Alberta
Regional life expectancy in Alberta, then the town’s place on the national deprivation index.
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
The index is context and never graded: it describes Birch Hills County’s own areas, averaged over residents, on each of its four dimensions.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
The nearest hospital is 39 km from the average home in Birch Hills County
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Birch Hills County’s own, not the region’s.
Compared with 3.1 km for the typical town in Alberta and 3.7 km for the typical Canadian town, Birch Hills County is on the far side. The clinic list is thin in Alberta: the facilities database holds few clinics there, so the clinic distance overstates the trip.
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.
22% of the region’s adults have high blood pressure and 9.9% diabetes
What the survey finds on conditions, weight and habits for the region, the province as the tick.
Conditions and weight · 2023/2024
Habits · 2023/2024
At 41%, self-reported obesity is above Alberta’s 32%. Heavy drinking is commoner too (25% against 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.
Level with regions as deprived, give or take a few months
Regions, not towns, with every town in a region sharing its dot: of the 102, the marked one, Birch Hills County’s, follows the trend.
Deprivation explains most of the gap between regions (correlation −0.83 over 102), and Birch Hills County’s region is a typical case: 78.3 years at a score of 3.7, where the trend says 78.5. The 10 regions scored most like it mostly do better (7 of 10), with a median of 78.9. Income would point the wrong way: households in the region’s towns earn about $112,000, more than in most regions, yet lives here are shorter than in most (across regions, income and life expectancy correlate at just 0.14).
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.
Fewer people rate their health highly here than in Alberta: 49% to 54%
How adults in the health region answered the survey, not adjusted for age; the tick marks the province.
Share of adults, as answered · 2023/2024
Mental health trails Alberta: 48% very good or excellent to 52%, with 24% facing stressful days.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Birch Hills County’s own.
- Distances are straight lines. A straight line from each neighbourhood’s centre to the nearest facility, weighted by who lives there, is shorter than any drive.
- Deprivation is context. None of the four deprivation scores enters the grade; they come from the 2021 index, which skips the territories.
- Adjusted for age. Standardising for age lets a retirement region and a young one be set side by side; the charts keep the raw answers, the grade the standardised ones.
- Who the survey asks. The health survey leaves out people living on reserves, full-time Canadian Forces members, people in institutions, and Nunavik and the Cree lands of James Bay.
- What counts as a hospital. Hospitals and clinics come from Statistics Canada’s facilities database, built from provincial lists of different dates, and a listed hospital may have no emergency department.
Questions about health in Birch Hills County
How far is Birch Hills County from a hospital?
A pharmacy is 41 km from the average resident of Birch Hills County, as the crow flies; clinic lists here are too thin to measure.
What is the life expectancy in Birch Hills County?
Women in Birch Hills County’s region live to 80.9 on average and men to 76.1, Statistics Canada’s 2022/2024 estimate.
How is Birch Hills County’s Health Grade worked out?
Not so far; the grade arrives with Canada’s grading run and will set the region’s figures, plus Birch Hills County’s own distance to care, against the typical Canadian town.
How healthy is Birch Hills County?
The region trails the typical Canadian town on each of its four survey and life-expectancy figures. On arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure, the region’s average share is 21%.
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).