Few places match Sundance for health: it beats 97% of Canadian towns
The survey puts the region’s share in very good or excellent health at 56%, ahead of the 53% for Alberta. What sets Sundance apart within its region is a short trip to hospital, 1.4 km for the average resident (3.7 km typical). Health gives Sundance a grade of A+, #24 of 474 in Alberta and #114 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Sundance
Fewer smokers
Smoking is rarer around Sundance than in the typical Canadian town’s region, and 6.2% of adults smoke every day. Conditions and habits ↓
Longer lives in the region
Born around Sundance, a child can expect 1.5 more years than in the typical Canadian town’s region; at 65, another 21.7 (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
Self-rated health runs high
Even once age is allowed for, 4.8 points more adults here call their health very good or excellent than in the typical town’s region (57% as answered). Health survey ↓
Near a hospital
The hospital is close for almost everyone in Sundance: 1.4 km from its centre of population. 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.
Sundance 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: #24 of 474 in Alberta and #114 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.
In the region, high blood pressure (17%) and diabetes (6.7%)
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
Fewer adults report obesity than across Alberta: 27%, the province 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.
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
No region of the 5 in Alberta lives longer than this one; the shortest-lived reaches 78.3, a gap of 4.7 years.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
Context only: each bar is the residents’ average quintile on one dimension of Statistics Canada’s index, for Sundance’s own areas.
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
Mental health is no outlier: 54% say very good or excellent (Alberta: 52%) and 23% live with stressful days.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
The nearest hospital is 1.4 km from the average home in Sundance
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Sundance’s own, not the region’s.
Sundance 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.
Just under the trend for regions as deprived
These are health regions, 102 of them, not towns: the survey and life expectancy are published that way, so the dot for Sundance’s region, on the line, stands for every town in it.
More deprivation, shorter lives: that holds across the 102 regions (correlation −0.83), and Sundance’s region fits it, 83.0 years at 2.3 against the line’s 83.2. Among the 10 regions closest to it on the index, shorter lives win out: 7 of the 10, around a median of 82.8 years.
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.
Closer to a hospital than most towns its size: Sundance comes 8th of 40
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 8,864 to 9,224 people, median 4.9 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Corktown ON B+ | 8,952 | 0.3 km | 53% |
| 2 | North Central SK B+ | 9,124 | 0.7 km | 49% |
| 3 | Booth MB B+ | 9,016 | 0.9 km | 52% |
| 6 | Old East York ON A | 9,175 | 1.2 km | 50% |
| 7 | DT Cooksville ON A− | 8,864 | 1.3 km | 49% |
| 8 | Sundance AB A+ | 9,043 | 1.4 km | 56% |
| 9 | H-Section (bramalea) ON A− | 9,040 | 1.6 km | 49% |
| 10 | Marlborough AB A+ | 8,932 | 2.2 km | 56% |
| 40 | Kimberley BC B− | 9,037 | 24 km | 57% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Sundance
The places around, with the distance to a hospital and their regions’ figures. Tap a town for its health page.
Sundance and all of these places belong to one health region: the regional figures repeat, the hospital distances don’t. Residents of Walden live further from a hospital, at 4.4 km against 1.4 km in Sundance.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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.
- 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 Sundance’s own.
- 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.
- Adjusted for age. Because older people report more illness, the grade uses age-standardised shares; the charts above show the unadjusted answers.
- 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.
Questions about health in Sundance
How healthy is Sundance?
On every regional measure, the region does better than the typical Canadian town. On arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure, the region’s average share is 16%.
What is the life expectancy in Sundance?
For the health region that includes Sundance, women can expect 85.0 years and men 80.9 (2022/2024).
How is Sundance’s Health Grade worked out?
Canada’s grades haven’t been set, so Sundance has none yet; when they are, Health will set its region and its hospital distance against the typical Canadian town.
How far is Sundance from a hospital?
A pharmacy is 1.2 km from the average resident of Sundance, as the crow flies; clinic lists here are too thin to measure.
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).