Photo: Jason Woodhead · CC BY 2.0People in Bow Island’s health region live to 78.7 on average, 2.8 years short of the typical Canadian town
About as many adults call their health very good or excellent here as across Alberta, 52% against 53%. The town’s own part is the trip to care, and Bow Island is well placed: 0.6 km to a hospital on average, against 3.7 km typical. Bow Island grades B for health.
What stands out about health in Bow Island
No pharmacy close by
From the average home in Bow Island, a pharmacy is 51 km away, a longer trip than most Canadians make for medicine. Getting care ↓
Deprivation runs high
On the index’s situational vulnerability, which follows housing, income and education, Bow Island’s neighbourhoods average 5.0 out of 5, among the most deprived fifth of the country. The wider area ↓
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.
Bow Island grades B 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.
From Bow Island, a hospital is 0.6 km away on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Bow Island’s own, not the region’s.
Bow Island is closer in than the provincial norm of 3.1 km in Alberta, and than the typical Canadian town at 3.7 km. 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.
How the 5 health regions in Alberta compare on life expectancy
Regional life expectancy in Alberta, then the town’s place on the national deprivation index.
Life expectancy at birth by health region · 2022/2024
Life expectancy in Alberta runs from 78.3 to 83.0; this region sits 4th of the 5.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
Higher means more deprived: the bars average the quintiles of the areas Bow Island’s residents live in, and none of them counts toward Health.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
Shorter lives than deprivation would give: 1.2 years behind the trend
102 dots, 102 health regions: no town has its own life expectancy here, and Bow Island’s region shows under the trend.
Life expectancy and deprivation move in opposite directions across 102 regions (correlation −0.83); at 3.3, the expected figure is 79.9 years, and Bow Island’s region falls below with 78.7. Among the 10 regions scored most like it, it comes last; their median is 81.2 years. Judged by income, around $83,000 a household, the region would look well placed, but income tracks life expectancy only weakly between regions (0.14), and this one lives less long than most.
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.
In the region, high blood pressure (22%) and diabetes (9.3%)
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
Obesity runs higher than in the province, at 39% of adults against 32% for Alberta.
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.
About as many rate their health highly here as in Alberta: 53% and 54%
The survey’s answers for the region as given, each beside the province’s (the tick).
Share of adults, as answered · 2023/2024
For 22% of adults most days are quite a bit stressful, and 53% rate their mental health very good or excellent, near Alberta’s 52%.
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
- 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.
- Regional figures. Only the distances on this page belong to Bow Island alone, because the health survey and life expectancy come for the whole health region.
- Who the survey asks. The survey’s frame skips reserves and other Indigenous settlements, institutions, the Forces and two Québec regions, so their figures come from elsewhere or not at all.
- Deprivation is context. The Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation (2021) is context, never graded, and the territories have none.
- 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.
- 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.
Questions about health in Bow Island
How is Bow Island’s Health Grade worked out?
Not yet: Health will weigh the region’s survey and life expectancy and Bow Island’s distance to a hospital against the typical Canadian town once Canada’s grading run happens.
What is the life expectancy in Bow Island?
Statistics Canada publishes it for Bow Island’s health region only: 80.6 years for women and 76.8 for men (2022/2024).
How far is Bow Island from a hospital?
For everyday care, Bow Island’s residents are 51 km from a pharmacy on average.
How healthy is Bow Island?
The region does worse than the typical Canadian town on most regional measures, with at least one exception. On arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure, the region’s average share is 19%.
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).