Photo: Wolfmum · CC BY-SA 4.0Cold Lake’s region trails the typical Canadian town by 3.2 years: life expectancy 78.3
Adults here are less upbeat about their health than the province: 48% very good or excellent, against 53% in Alberta. Measured from where Cold Lake’s residents live, a hospital is 3.5 km away, near the 3.7 km most towns see. The Health grade for Cold Lake is C−, #451 of 474 in Alberta and #2,426 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Cold Lake
Smoking runs high
The age-standardised smoking rate around Cold Lake is well above the typical town’s; 14% of adults are daily smokers. Conditions and habits ↓
Long-term conditions run high
For its ages, the region carries more long-term illness than most: high blood pressure for 22% of adults, diabetes for 9.9%. Conditions and habits ↓
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.
Cold Lake 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: #451 of 474 in Alberta and #2,426 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.
22% of the region’s adults have high blood pressure and 9.9% diabetes
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
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.
Deprivation all but predicts the region’s life expectancy, which falls just short of the trend
Compared region with region (102 health regions, each figure shared by all its towns); Cold Lake’s region is near the line.
Use the deprivation index alone and Cold Lake’s region, at 3.7, should live about 78.5 years, the trend through 102 regions (correlation −0.83), and it reaches 78.3, near enough. Among the 10 regions closest to it on the index, longer lives win out: 7 of the 10, around a median of 78.9 years. Its towns’ household income, about $112,000, sits above most regions’ while its life expectancy sits below; across regions it is the deprivation index, not income, that follows lives (income’s 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.
Getting to hospital from Cold Lake: 3.5 km on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Cold Lake’s own, not the region’s.
Nothing unusual for Cold Lake here: the typical town in Alberta is 3.1 km from a hospital and the typical Canadian town 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.
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
This is the shortest-lived of the 5 regions in Alberta, 4.7 years behind the first at 83.0.
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 Cold Lake’s own areas.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
49% in the region call their health very good or excellent, fewer 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
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.
Mid-table for hospital distance among towns its size: Cold Lake comes 24th of 40
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 17,309 to 18,296 people, median 2.7 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bay-Cloverhill ON A | 17,591 | 0.3 km | 50% |
| 2 | Downtown Yonge East ON A | 18,251 | 0.3 km | 50% |
| 3 | Schmidtville NS B+ | 18,105 | 0.6 km | 51% |
| 22 | Central Saanich BC A+ | 18,184 | 3.0 km | 55% |
| 23 | Swift Current SK B | 18,154 | 3.1 km | 54% |
| 24 | Cold Lake AB C− | 17,798 | 3.5 km | 48% |
| 25 | Edmundston NB C+ | 18,174 | 3.7 km | 48% |
| 26 | Listowel ON B | 18,168 | 3.8 km | 45% |
| 40 | Lake Country BC B− | 17,637 | 20 km | 52% |
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
- 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 Cold Lake’s own.
- 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.
- Deprivation is context. Statistics Canada’s 2021 deprivation index describes the town’s own areas for context only, with no index for the territories.
- 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 Cold Lake
What is the life expectancy in Cold Lake?
There is no figure for Cold Lake alone; its health region’s is 80.9 for women and 76.1 for men in 2022/2024.
How is Cold Lake’s Health Grade worked out?
Not yet: Health will weigh the region’s survey and life expectancy and Cold Lake’s distance to a hospital against the typical Canadian town once Canada’s grading run happens.
How healthy is Cold Lake?
All four of the region’s figures sit on the less healthy side of the typical Canadian town’s. On arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure, the region’s average share is 21%.
How far is Cold Lake from a hospital?
A pharmacy is 1.2 km from the average resident of Cold Lake, 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).