Photo: Paul Jerry · CC BY 2.0Expect 78.7 years of life in the region around Brooks, 2.8 under the typical Canadian town
Self-rated health is ordinary for Alberta: 52% of the region’s adults say very good or excellent, the province 53%. For Brooks itself the measure is access, and it scores well: 1.3 km to the nearest hospital, where 3.7 km is typical. Health gives Brooks a grade of B−, #378 of 474 in Alberta and #1,951 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Brooks
A hospital close by
Few Canadian towns live as close to a hospital as Brooks; from its centre of population the trip is 0.1 km. Getting care ↓
Plenty of pharmacies
The average resident of Brooks can reach 5.9 pharmacies inside 3 km; the closest is 0.9 km off. Getting care ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Brooks 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. Its place: #378 of 474 in Alberta and #1,951 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.
The nearest hospital is 1.3 km from the average home in Brooks
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Brooks’ own, not the region’s.
From Brooks that is nearer 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.
The region lives 1.2 years less than its deprivation predicts
Each dot is a health region, not a town, its figures shared by every town in it; Brooks’ region sits below the trend line through 102 regions.
Life expectancy drops as deprivation climbs across Canada’s 102 health regions (correlation −0.83); a score of 3.3 would suggest 79.9 years, but Brooks’ region stops at 78.7. Among the 10 regions scored most like it, it comes last; their median is 81.2 years. A household income of about $83,000, high for a region, doesn’t come with longer lives here; across regions the two barely move together (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.
High blood pressure for 22% of adults in the region, diabetes for 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
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.
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, 4th 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
Higher means more deprived: the bars average the quintiles of the areas Brooks’ 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.
53% in the region call their health very good or excellent, close to Alberta (54%)
The survey’s answers for the region as given, each beside the province’s (the tick).
Share of adults, as answered · 2023/2024
Stress touches 22% of adults on most days; mental health is rated very good or excellent by 53%, the province 52% (Alberta).
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Brooks is 11th of 40 towns its size for nearness to a hospital
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 17,043 to 18,016 people, median 2.6 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bay-Cloverhill ON A | 17,591 | 0.3 km | 50% |
| 2 | La Visitation QC A | 17,166 | 0.5 km | 54% |
| 3 | Petite-Côte QC A | 17,196 | 0.9 km | 54% |
| 9 | Sylvan Lake AB C+ | 17,897 | 1.2 km | 52% |
| 10 | Brookhaven-Amesbury ON A | 17,541 | 1.2 km | 50% |
| 11 | Brooks AB B− | 17,537 | 1.3 km | 52% |
| 12 | Cowansville QC A+ | 17,269 | 1.6 km | 57% |
| 13 | Clanton Park ON A | 17,673 | 1.6 km | 50% |
| 40 | Sooke BC A− | 17,248 | 23 km | 55% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Brooks
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brooks | 1.3 km | 52% | 78.7 | B− |
| Newell County 4.9 km | 18 km | 52% | 78.7 | C+ |
| Duchess 18 km | 18 km | 52% | 78.7 | C+ |
One health region covers Brooks and every place in the table, so the survey and life-expectancy columns read the same. Newell County is the furthest from care, 18 km to Brooks’ 1.3 km.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Deprivation is context. The Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation (2021) is context, never graded, and the territories have none.
- Adjusted for age. Because older people report more illness, the grade uses age-standardised shares; the charts above show the unadjusted answers.
- 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.
- 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. Statistics Canada reports the survey and life expectancy by health region, not by town: Brooks shares them with its neighbours, while the distances are measured for it alone.
- Who the survey asks. Not everyone is in the survey’s sample: reserves, the Canadian Forces, institutions and two northern Québec regions are left out.
Questions about health in Brooks
What is the life expectancy in Brooks?
For the health region that includes Brooks, women can expect 80.6 years and men 76.8 (2022/2024).
How is Brooks’ Health Grade worked out?
Not so far; the grade arrives with Canada’s grading run and will set the region’s figures, plus Brooks’ own distance to care, against the typical Canadian town.
How far is Brooks from a hospital?
Beyond the hospital, the average home in Brooks is 0.9 km from a pharmacy; clinics are too sparsely listed in the province to say.
How healthy is Brooks?
Most of the region’s figures sit on the less healthy side of the typical Canadian town’s, though not all. The three chronic conditions the grade counts average 19% of adults.
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).