Clear Hills scores below 97% of Canadian towns for health
Across the region, 48% of adults say their health is very good or excellent; Alberta as a whole reaches 53%. Measured from where Clear Hills’ residents live, a hospital is 54 km away on average and 84% of them are over 30 km out. The Health grade for Clear Hills is D−, #2,575 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Clear Hills
A region where lives run shorter
Clear Hills’ region sits 3.2 years below the typical Canadian town, and those reaching 65 have 19.7 years ahead (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
A long way to hospital
Residents of Clear Hills live much further from a hospital than in the typical Canadian town (36 km from its centre of population), and 84% are more than 30 km away. Getting care ↓
Smoking runs high
Smoking is commoner around Clear Hills than in the typical Canadian town’s region, and 14% of adults smoke every day. Conditions and habits ↓
A heavier load of illness
High blood pressure (22%) and diabetes (9.9%) push the region’s chronic-condition figure above the typical Canadian town’s. Conditions and habits ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Clear Hills grades D− 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: #2,575 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.
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
No region of the 5 in Alberta has shorter lives than this one; the longest-lived reaches 83.0, a gap of 4.7 years.
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 Clear Hills’ 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.
From Clear Hills, a hospital is 54 km away on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Clear Hills’ own, not the region’s.
Clear Hills 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.
High blood pressure for 22% of adults in the region, diabetes for 9.9%
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, 41%, tops Alberta (32%). More adults drink heavily, 25% to the province’s 19%.
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.
Level with regions as deprived, give or take a few months
The comparison runs between 102 health regions, each shared by its towns; Clear Hills’ region’s dot is close to the line.
At 3.7 on the index, regions tend to reach 78.5 years (correlation −0.83, 102 regions), and the one Clear Hills belongs to reaches 78.3. The 10 regions scored most like it mostly do better (7 of 10), with a median of 78.9. A household income of about $112,000, 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.
Self-rated health trails Alberta: 49% very good or excellent, against 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
Fewer adults here report very good or excellent mental health than across Alberta (48% against 52%), while 24% call most days stressful.
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: Clear Hills comes 39th of 40
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 3,062 to 3,160 people, median 7.4 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Blakeley ON B+ | 3,151 | 0.4 km | 53% |
| 2 | Ainslie Wood East ON B | 3,112 | 0.9 km | 53% |
| 3 | La Loche SK | 3,124 | 1.0 km | – |
| 37 | Cap-Pelé NB C | 3,092 | 37 km | 43% |
| 38 | Sudbury, Unorganized, North Part ON D | 3,083 | 40 km | 51% |
| 39 | Clear Hills AB D− | 3,110 | 54 km | 48% |
| 40 | Houston BC D− | 3,114 | 54 km | 42% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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. The facilities database merges provincial lists of different vintages; its hospitals include some with no emergency department, and a few are placed by postal code.
- Distances are straight lines. They run from where residents live, not along roads, so they understate a drive; each dissemination area counts by its 2021 population.
- Regional figures. Every place in the health region carries the same survey and life-expectancy figures; what is measured for Clear Hills itself is the trip to care.
- Deprivation is context. Statistics Canada’s 2021 deprivation index describes the town’s own areas for context only, with no index for the territories.
- 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 Clear Hills
How far is Clear Hills from a hospital?
Residents of Clear Hills have a pharmacy 74 km away on average, in a straight line.
What is the life expectancy in Clear Hills?
There is no figure for Clear Hills alone; its health region’s is 80.9 for women and 76.1 for men in 2022/2024.
How is Clear Hills’ Health Grade worked out?
Not yet: Health will weigh the region’s survey and life expectancy and Clear Hills’ distance to a hospital against the typical Canadian town once Canada’s grading run happens.
How healthy is Clear Hills?
The region trails the typical Canadian town on each of its four survey and life-expectancy figures. Chronic conditions there average 21% across arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure.
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).