For health, Walden is ahead of 95% of Canadian towns
Adults here are more upbeat about their health than the province: 56% very good or excellent, against 53% in Alberta. What sets Walden apart within its region is distance, and at 4.4 km to a hospital it is ordinary (3.7 km typical). Health gives Walden a grade of A, #116 of 474 in Alberta and #290 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Walden
A region that smokes less
Smoking is rarer around Walden than in the typical Canadian town’s region, and 6.2% of adults smoke every day. Conditions and habits ↓
Life expectancy above the norm
Walden’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 ↓
Upbeat about their health
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
With 5.6 pharmacies within 3 km of the average home and the nearest 0.6 km off, Walden is well served for prescriptions. 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.
Walden 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: #116 of 474 in Alberta and #290 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%)
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
At 27%, self-reported obesity is below Alberta’s 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.
Longest and shortest lives among the 5 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
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
The index is context and never graded: it describes Walden’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.
More people rate their health highly here than in Alberta: 57% to 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
Mental wellbeing sits at the provincial level, 54% very good or excellent against 52% for Alberta; stress is a daily matter for 23%.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Getting to hospital from Walden: 4.4 km on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Walden’s own, not the region’s.
Walden is further out than the provincial norm of 3.1 km in Alberta, and than the typical Canadian town at 3.7 km. 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 close to where deprivation puts it, a shade under
102 dots, 102 health regions: no town has its own life expectancy here, and Walden’s region shows close to the trend.
At 2.3 on the index, regions tend to reach 83.2 years (correlation −0.83, 102 regions), and the one Walden belongs to reaches 83.0. Its 10 closest matches on deprivation lean shorter-lived: 7 of them below it, 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.
Among 40 towns its size, Walden is 20th nearest a hospital
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 8,075 to 8,308 people, median 4.6 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | G-Section (bramalea) ON A− | 8,224 | 0.9 km | 49% |
| 2 | Wolseley MB B+ | 8,127 | 1.0 km | 52% |
| 3 | Ponoka AB C+ | 8,212 | 1.2 km | 52% |
| 18 | Morgan Creek BC A | 8,084 | 4.1 km | 50% |
| 19 | Jackson ON B+ | 8,124 | 4.4 km | 52% |
| 20 | Walden AB A | 8,190 | 4.4 km | 56% |
| 21 | La Malbaie QC A+ | 8,293 | 4.7 km | 62% |
| 22 | St. Norbert MB B+ | 8,251 | 4.8 km | 52% |
| 40 | Beaubassin East / Beaubassin-est NB C | 8,138 | 32 km | 43% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Walden
Nearby places: distance to a hospital and each one’s regional figures. Tap a town for its health page.
Same region, same survey: Walden’s neighbours differ only in how far they are from a hospital. Residents of Sundance live nearer a hospital, at 1.4 km against 4.4 km in Walden.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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.
- Who the survey asks. People on reserves and in institutions, full-time military members and the residents of Nunavik and Eeyou Istchee aren’t interviewed by the survey.
- 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.
- Regional figures. Statistics Canada reports the survey and life expectancy by health region, not by town: Walden shares them with its neighbours, while the distances are measured for it alone.
- Deprivation is context. None of the four deprivation scores enters the grade; they come from the 2021 index, which skips the territories.
Questions about health in Walden
How is Walden’s Health Grade worked out?
Not so far; the grade arrives with Canada’s grading run and will set the region’s figures, plus Walden’s own distance to care, against the typical Canadian town.
How healthy is Walden?
On every regional measure, the region does better than the typical Canadian town. Its chronic-condition figure, age-standardised, is 16%.
What is the life expectancy in Walden?
Life expectancy comes by health region: 85.0 for women, 80.9 for men around Walden (2022/2024).
How far is Walden from a hospital?
Beyond the hospital, the average home in Walden is 0.6 km from a pharmacy; clinics are too sparsely listed in the province to say.
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).