Photo: Erik Lizee · Public domainPeople in Clearwater County’s health region live to 79.1 on average, 2.4 years short of the typical Canadian town
About as many adults call their health very good or excellent here as across Alberta, 52% against 53%. For Clearwater County itself the measure is access, and it lags: 20 km to the nearest hospital, where 3.7 km is typical. The Health grade for Clearwater County is C−, #436 of 474 in Alberta and #2,353 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Clearwater County
Far from a hospital
Residents of Clearwater County live much further from a hospital than in the typical Canadian town (13 km from its centre of population), and 20% are more than 30 km away. Getting care ↓
Smoking runs high
Smoking is commoner around Clearwater County than in the typical Canadian town’s region, and 12% of adults smoke every day. Conditions and habits ↓
A long way to a pharmacy
The nearest pharmacy on OpenStreetMap is 20 km from the average home in Clearwater County, so prescriptions mean a drive. Getting care ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Clearwater 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: #436 of 474 in Alberta and #2,353 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 Clearwater County, a hospital is 20 km away on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Clearwater County’s own, not the region’s.
Clearwater County is further out 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.
High blood pressure for 24% of adults in the region, diabetes for 8.9%
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
At 39%, self-reported obesity is above 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.
0.8 fewer years of life than regions as deprived
Plotted region by region (102 in all, since towns have no figures of their own), Clearwater County’s region comes out below the trend.
Shorter lives come with deeper deprivation across the 102 regions (correlation −0.83). Even allowing for its score of 3.3, Clearwater County’s region’s 79.1 years sit under the line’s 79.9. Set beside its 10 nearest neighbours on the index, it trails the majority, 9 of 10; their median is 81.2 years. Judged by income, around $85,000 a household, the region would look well placed, but income tracks life expectancy only weakly between regions (0.14), and this one lives less long than most.
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.
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
Among the 5 regions in Alberta, from 78.3 to 83.0 years, this one is 3rd.
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 Clearwater County’s 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.
Fewer people rate their health highly here than in Alberta: 51% 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
Neither ahead nor behind Alberta on mental health (54% to 52%), the region has 22% of adults stressed most days.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Among 40 towns its size, Clearwater County is 36th nearest a hospital
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 11,570 to 12,148 people, median 8.9 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Weyburn SK C− | 11,871 | 0.9 km | 49% |
| 2 | Nelson BC A | 12,126 | 1.3 km | 55% |
| 3 | Selkirk MB C | 11,570 | 1.9 km | 50% |
| 34 | Saint-Sauveur QC A | 12,112 | 17 km | 60% |
| 35 | Dundalk ON C | 11,599 | 19 km | 48% |
| 36 | Clearwater County AB C− | 11,856 | 20 km | 52% |
| 37 | Wetaskiwin County No. 10 AB C− | 12,117 | 20 km | 52% |
| 38 | Morrisburg ON C | 11,943 | 22 km | 49% |
| 40 | Mont-Tremblant QC A− | 11,879 | 25 km | 60% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Clearwater County
Nearby places: distance to a hospital and each one’s regional figures. Tap a town for its health page.
| Town | Hospital | Very good health | Life exp. | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clearwater County | 20 km | 52% | 79.1 | C− |
| Rocky Mountain House 14 km | 1.2 km | 52% | 79.1 | C+ |
The neighbours all sit in Clearwater County’s health region, which is why their regional columns are identical. Rocky Mountain House is the closest to care, 1.2 km to Clearwater County’s 20 km.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- What counts as a hospital. A “hospital” here is whatever the provinces listed as one in Statistics Canada’s database, which can mean a site without an emergency department.
- 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 Clearwater County’s own.
- Deprivation is context. Deprivation is shown to set the scene and doesn’t count toward the grade; Statistics Canada left the territories out of the index.
- 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.
- Distances are straight lines. Roads, rivers and ferries aren’t in it: the figure is a straight line from where people live, averaged over residents.
- 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.
Questions about health in Clearwater County
How far is Clearwater County from a hospital?
A pharmacy is 20 km from the average resident of Clearwater County, as the crow flies; clinic lists here are too thin to measure.
How is Clearwater County’s Health Grade worked out?
It will once Canada’s single grading run is done, measured on the region’s survey and life expectancy and on how far Clearwater County’s homes are from a hospital, against the typical Canadian town.
What is the life expectancy in Clearwater County?
There is no figure for Clearwater County alone; its health region’s is 81.7 for women and 76.6 for men in 2022/2024.
How healthy is Clearwater County?
All four of the region’s figures sit on the less healthy side of the typical Canadian town’s. Chronic conditions there average 19% 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).