Photo: Rural Health Professions Action Plan from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada · CC BY 2.0People in Elk Point’s health region live to 78.3 on average, 3.2 years short of the typical Canadian town
In the health survey, 48% of adults in the region rate their health very good or excellent, fewer than Alberta’s 53%. The town’s own part is the trip to care, and Elk Point is well placed: 0.5 km to a hospital on average, against 3.7 km typical. Health gives Elk Point a grade of C−.
What stands out about health in Elk Point
Smoking runs high
Smoking is commoner around Elk Point than in the typical Canadian town’s region, and 14% of adults smoke every day. Conditions and habits ↓
More chronic illness
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 ↓
Pharmacies far off
From the average home in Elk Point, a pharmacy is 25 km away, a longer trip than most Canadians make for medicine. Getting care ↓
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.
Elk Point 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.
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.
From Elk Point, a hospital is 0.5 km away on average
Straight-line distances from each part of Elk Point, weighted by who lives there.
Elk Point is closer in 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.
About as long-lived as regions this deprived, if slightly less
These are health regions, 102 of them, not towns: the survey and life expectancy are published that way, so the dot for Elk Point’s region, on the line, stands for every town in it.
Use the deprivation index alone and Elk Point’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. The 10 regions scored most like it mostly do better (7 of 10), with a median of 78.9. Higher incomes, shorter lives: about $112,000 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.
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 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
Statistics Canada scores every small area from 1 to 5 on each dimension; Elk Point’s bars are its residents’ average, shown and not graded.
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.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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.
- 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.
- Deprivation is context. Statistics Canada’s 2021 deprivation index describes the town’s own areas for context only, with no index for the territories.
- 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 Elk Point’s own.
- Who the survey asks. The health survey leaves out people living on reserves, full-time Canadian Forces members, people in institutions, and Nunavik and the Cree lands of James Bay.
- 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.
Questions about health in Elk Point
What is the life expectancy in Elk Point?
For the health region that includes Elk Point, women can expect 80.9 years and men 76.1 (2022/2024).
How is Elk Point’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 Elk Point’s homes are from a hospital, against the typical Canadian town.
How healthy is Elk Point?
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 Elk Point from a hospital?
A pharmacy is 25 km from the average resident of Elk Point, 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).