Photo: Glenlarson~commonswiki · Public domainLife expectancy around Bowden is 79.1 years, 2.4 less than for the typical Canadian town
Across the region, 52% of adults say their health is very good or excellent, much as in Alberta (53%). For Bowden itself the measure is access, and it lags: 11 km to the nearest hospital, where 3.7 km is typical. Bowden grades C for health.
What stands out about health in Bowden
A region that smokes more
Smoking is commoner around Bowden than in the typical Canadian town’s region, and 12% of adults smoke every day. Conditions and habits ↓
A long way to hospital
For 0% of homes in Bowden the nearest hospital is over 30 km off; from the town’s centre of population it is 11 km. Getting care ↓
Deprivation runs high
On the index’s situational vulnerability, which follows housing, income and education, Bowden’s neighbourhoods average 4.6 out of 5, among the most deprived fifth of the country. The wider area ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Bowden 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.
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 (24%) and diabetes (8.9%)
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
Self-reported obesity, 39%, tops Alberta (32%).
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.
From Bowden, a hospital is 11 km away on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Bowden’s own, not the region’s.
From Bowden that is further than the 3.1 km of the typical town in Alberta, and the 3.7 km of the typical Canadian town. 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.
Life expectancy across the 5 health 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
Of the 5 health regions in Alberta, 3rd place goes to this one, between a low of 78.3 and a high of 83.0.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
The index is context and never graded: it describes Bowden’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.
0.8 fewer years of life than regions as deprived
Plotted region by region (102 in all, since towns have no figures of their own), Bowden’s region comes out below 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 Bowden’s region falls below with 79.1. The 10 regions scored most like it mostly do better (9 of 10), with a median of 81.2. Its towns’ household income, about $85,000, sits above most regions’ while its life expectancy sits below; across regions it is the deprivation index, not income, that follows lives (income’s correlation: 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.
51% in the region call their health very good or excellent, fewer than in Alberta (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
On mental health the region tracks Alberta, 54% very good or excellent to 52%; 22% describe most days as quite a bit stressful.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Health in the places around Bowden
Nearby places: distance to a hospital and each one’s regional figures. Tap a town for its health page.
One health region covers Bowden and every place in the table, so the survey and life-expectancy columns read the same. Residents of Innisfail live nearer a hospital, at 1.0 km against 11 km in Bowden.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Adjusted for age. Because older people report more illness, the grade uses age-standardised shares; the charts above show the unadjusted answers.
- 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.
- 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. None of the four deprivation scores enters the grade; they come from the 2021 index, which skips the territories.
- Regional figures. Statistics Canada reports the survey and life expectancy by health region, not by town: Bowden shares them with its neighbours, while the distances are measured for it alone.
- 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.
Questions about health in Bowden
How is Bowden’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 Bowden’s homes are from a hospital, against the typical Canadian town.
What is the life expectancy in Bowden?
There is no figure for Bowden alone; its health region’s is 81.7 for women and 76.6 for men in 2022/2024.
How far is Bowden from a hospital?
Beyond the hospital, the average home in Bowden is 12 km from a pharmacy; clinics are too sparsely listed in the province to say.
How healthy is Bowden?
The region trails the typical Canadian town on each of its four survey and life-expectancy figures. Chronic conditions there average 19% across arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure.
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).