Photo: Qyd · CC BY 2.5Health in Forest Lawn beats 95% of Canadian towns
The survey puts the region’s share in very good or excellent health at 56%, ahead of the 53% for Alberta. For Forest Lawn itself the measure is access: 4.3 km to the nearest hospital, much like the typical 3.7 km. The Health grade for Forest Lawn is A, #114 of 474 in Alberta and #283 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Forest Lawn
Fewer smokers
Around Forest Lawn, only 6.2% of adults smoke daily, part of a smoking rate lower than most Canadian towns’ regions. Conditions and habits ↓
Life expectancy above the norm
Forest Lawn’s region sits 1.5 years above the typical Canadian town, and those reaching 65 have 21.7 years ahead (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
More people feeling well
The survey’s age-standardised figure sits 4.8 points over the typical Canadian town’s, and 57% answered very good or excellent. Health survey ↓
Pharmacies close at hand
A typical home in Forest Lawn has 9.4 pharmacies within 3 km, the nearest 0.7 km away. Getting care ↓
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.
Forest Lawn grades A 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: #114 of 474 in Alberta and #283 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.
17% of the region’s adults have high blood pressure and 6.7% diabetes
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, 27%, trails 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
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 longest-lived of the 5 regions in Alberta, 4.7 years ahead of the last at 78.3.
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; Forest Lawn’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.
57% in the region call their health very good or excellent, more than in 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
About as many adults report very good or excellent mental health as across Alberta (54% against 52%), while 23% call most days stressful.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Getting to hospital from Forest Lawn: 4.3 km on average
Straight-line distances from each part of Forest Lawn, weighted by who lives there.
Residents of Forest Lawn travel further than most of the province: the typical town in Alberta is 3.1 km from a hospital, the typical Canadian town 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.
Just under the trend for regions as deprived
102 dots, 102 health regions: no town has its own life expectancy here, and Forest Lawn’s region shows close to the trend.
Life expectancy and deprivation move in opposite directions across 102 regions (correlation −0.83); at 2.3, the expected figure is 83.2 years, and Forest Lawn’s region matches it closely with 83.0. The 10 regions scored most like it mostly do worse (7 of 10), with a median of 82.8.
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.
Forest Lawn is 26th of 40 towns its size for nearness to a hospital
The 40 Canadian towns nearest its population (7,357 to 7,681 people), nearest a hospital first; their median is 3.1 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Landsdale ON B+ | 7,681 | 0.5 km | 53% |
| 2 | University ON A | 7,595 | 0.6 km | 50% |
| 3 | Ermineskin AB B+ | 7,483 | 0.6 km | 51% |
| 24 | Ranchlands AB A+ | 7,376 | 3.7 km | 56% |
| 25 | Blairmore Suburban Centre SK B+ | 7,411 | 4.2 km | 49% |
| 26 | Forest Lawn AB A | 7,513 | 4.3 km | 56% |
| 27 | Eastview SK B+ | 7,536 | 4.8 km | 49% |
| 28 | Fruitland ON B | 7,653 | 5.2 km | 53% |
| 40 | Trent Lakes ON C− | 7,357 | 30 km | 47% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Forest Lawn
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forest Lawn | 4.3 km | 56% | 83.0 | A |
| Albert Park/Radisson Heights 1.3 km | 3.7 km | 56% | 83.0 | A+ |
| Dover 1.4 km | 5.7 km | 56% | 83.0 | A |
| Forest Heights 1.6 km | 3.2 km | 56% | 83.0 | A+ |
| Erin Woods 2.0 km | 6.3 km | 56% | 83.0 | A |
| Penbrooke Meadows 2.0 km | 4.4 km | 56% | 83.0 | A |
| Marlborough 2.8 km | 2.2 km | 56% | 83.0 | A+ |
Because the health region stops further out than these places, they all carry Forest Lawn’s regional figures.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Regional figures. Every place in the health region carries the same survey and life-expectancy figures; what is measured for Forest Lawn itself is the trip to care.
- Deprivation is context. None of the four deprivation scores enters the grade; they come from the 2021 index, which skips the territories.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Questions about health in Forest Lawn
How healthy is Forest Lawn?
All four of the region’s figures sit on the healthier side of the typical Canadian town’s. Its chronic-condition figure, age-standardised, is 16%.
What is the life expectancy in Forest Lawn?
Women in Forest Lawn’s region live to 85.0 on average and men to 80.9, Statistics Canada’s 2022/2024 estimate.
How is Forest Lawn’s Health Grade worked out?
Not yet: Health will weigh the region’s survey and life expectancy and Forest Lawn’s distance to a hospital against the typical Canadian town once Canada’s grading run happens.
How far is Forest Lawn from a hospital?
Residents of Forest Lawn have a pharmacy 0.7 km away on average, in a straight line.
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).