Photo: Ken Eckert · CC BY-SA 4.0People in Drumheller’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 Drumheller itself the measure is access: 2.8 km to the nearest hospital, much like the typical 3.7 km. Health gives Drumheller a grade of C+, #409 of 474 in Alberta and #2,176 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Drumheller
Smoking runs high
Smoking is commoner around Drumheller than in the typical Canadian town’s region, and 12% of adults smoke every day. Conditions and habits ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Drumheller 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: #409 of 474 in Alberta and #2,176 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 (24%) and diabetes (8.9%)
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
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.
The region lives 0.8 years less than its deprivation predicts
Every town shares its health region’s figures, so this compares 102 regions; the one holding Drumheller’s lies below the line.
Where residents average 3.3 on the index, regions tend to reach 79.9 years (correlation −0.83, 102 regions); the one Drumheller belongs to trails at 79.1. It is outlived by 9 of the 10 regions nearest it on the index, whose median is 81.2 years. Income would point the wrong way: households in the region’s towns earn about $85,000, more than in most regions, yet lives here are shorter than in most (across regions, income and life expectancy correlate at just 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 Drumheller: 2.8 km on average
Straight-line distances from each part of Drumheller, weighted by who lives there.
Drumheller is near the provincial norm, 3.1 km for the typical town in Alberta, with 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.
Longest and shortest lives among the 5 regions in Alberta
What Statistics Canada publishes above the town: life expectancy for each health region in Alberta, and the deprivation index for the town’s own areas.
Life expectancy at birth by health region · 2022/2024
This region is 3rd longest-lived of 5 in Alberta, on a scale from 78.3 to 83.0 years.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
This is the one part of the block measured for Drumheller itself, and it sets the scene rather than feeding the grade.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
51% 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
Mental health is close to the province’s: 54% rate it very good or excellent, against 52% in Alberta, and 22% find most days quite stressful.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Drumheller is 14th of 40 towns its size for nearness to a hospital
The 40 Canadian towns nearest its population (8,327 to 8,539 people), nearest a hospital first; their median is 3.6 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Garneau AB B+ | 8,492 | 0.5 km | 51% |
| 2 | Alta Vista ON A+ | 8,387 | 0.9 km | 56% |
| 3 | Valley Gardens MB B+ | 8,329 | 0.9 km | 52% |
| 12 | Trinity Commons ON A− | 8,477 | 2.3 km | 49% |
| 13 | Deer Lake BC A | 8,417 | 2.3 km | 48% |
| 14 | Drumheller AB C+ | 8,439 | 2.8 km | 52% |
| 15 | St. John's MB B+ | 8,492 | 2.8 km | 52% |
| 16 | Rocky Ridge AB A+ | 8,419 | 2.8 km | 56% |
| 40 | Muskoka Lakes ON B | 8,463 | 20 km | 54% |
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
- 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.
- Adjusted for age. The grade’s three survey shares are age-standardised to Canada’s adults, so an older region isn’t marked down for age alone, while the survey charts show answers as given.
- 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.
- 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. Every place in the health region carries the same survey and life-expectancy figures; what is measured for Drumheller itself is the trip to care.
- 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.
Questions about health in Drumheller
What is the life expectancy in Drumheller?
There is no figure for Drumheller alone; its health region’s is 81.7 for women and 76.6 for men in 2022/2024.
How is Drumheller’s Health Grade worked out?
Not so far; the grade arrives with Canada’s grading run and will set the region’s figures, plus Drumheller’s own distance to care, against the typical Canadian town.
How far is Drumheller from a hospital?
Residents of Drumheller have a pharmacy 2.5 km away on average, in a straight line.
How healthy is Drumheller?
All four of the region’s figures sit on the less healthy side of the typical Canadian town’s. 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).