Photo: Tiado · CC BY-SA 3.0People in Cardston County’s health region live to 78.7 on average, 2.8 years short of the typical Canadian town
On self-rated health the region tracks the province: 52% very good or excellent, 53% for Alberta. Measured from where Cardston County’s residents live, the nearest hospital is 15 km away, beyond the typical 3.7 km. Cardston County grades C+ for health, #408 of 474 in Alberta and #2,173 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Cardston County
A long way to hospital
For 0% of homes in Cardston County the nearest hospital is over 30 km off; from the town’s centre of population it is 9.0 km. Getting care ↓
Pharmacies far off
From the average home in Cardston County, a pharmacy is 19 km away, a longer trip than most Canadians make for medicine. Getting care ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Cardston County 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. Its place: #408 of 474 in Alberta and #2,173 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.
From Cardston County, a hospital is 15 km away on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Cardston County’s own, not the region’s.
Compared with 3.1 km for the typical town in Alberta and 3.7 km for the typical Canadian town, Cardston County is on the far side. 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.
Deprivation predicts more: the region falls 1.2 years short of the trend
Regions, not towns, with every town in a region sharing its dot: of the 102, the marked one, Cardston County’s, lies beneath 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 Cardston County’s region falls below with 78.7. Against the 10 regions with the nearest deprivation scores, all live longer; the middle of the group is 81.2 years. Higher incomes, shorter lives: about $83,000 a household, above most regions’, with a life expectancy below most; income and lifespan correlate at only 0.14 across regions.
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%
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.
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
The region comes 4th of 5 in Alberta, where life expectancy runs from 78.3 to 83.0 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 Cardston County’s own areas.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
About as many rate their health highly here as in Alberta: 53% and 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 health reads like the rest of Alberta: 53% against 52%, and 22% under quite a bit of stress most days.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Further from a hospital than most towns its size: Cardston County comes 36th of 40
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 4,830 to 5,048 people, median 3.0 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Westdale South ON B+ | 4,931 | 0.5 km | 53% |
| 2 | Westmount AB B+ | 4,961 | 0.5 km | 51% |
| 3 | Altona MB B | 4,989 | 0.6 km | 51% |
| 34 | Saint-Jacques QC B+ | 4,830 | 13 km | 56% |
| 35 | Northern Bruce Peninsula ON C | 5,018 | 14 km | 48% |
| 36 | Cardston County AB C+ | 4,938 | 15 km | 52% |
| 37 | Tyendinaga ON D | 5,005 | 15 km | 45% |
| 38 | Edenwold No. 158 SK B− | 4,932 | 17 km | 49% |
| 40 | Electoral Area F, Cariboo BC C− | 5,016 | 33 km | 48% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Cardston County
Nearby places: distance to a hospital and each one’s regional figures. Tap a town for its health page.
Around Cardston County the health region doesn’t change, so the only column that moves is the distance to a hospital. Residents of Cardston live nearer a hospital, at 1.0 km against 15 km in Cardston County.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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.
- Regional figures. Every place in the health region carries the same survey and life-expectancy figures; what is measured for Cardston County itself is the trip to care.
- 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.
- 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.
- Adjusted for age. Standardising for age lets a retirement region and a young one be set side by side; the charts keep the raw answers, the grade the standardised ones.
- Deprivation is context. The Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation (2021) is context, never graded, and the territories have none.
Questions about health in Cardston County
What is the life expectancy in Cardston County?
For the health region that includes Cardston County, women can expect 80.6 years and men 76.8 (2022/2024).
How far is Cardston County from a hospital?
Residents of Cardston County have a pharmacy 19 km away on average, in a straight line.
How is Cardston County’s Health Grade worked out?
Not so far; the grade arrives with Canada’s grading run and will set the region’s figures, plus Cardston County’s own distance to care, against the typical Canadian town.
How healthy is Cardston County?
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).