Photo: Kay Röllig · CC BY 3.0Health in Foothills County beats 91% of Canadian towns
Adults here are more upbeat about their health than the province: 56% very good or excellent, against 53% in Alberta. For Foothills County itself the measure is access, and it lags: 11 km to the nearest hospital, where 3.7 km is typical. The Health grade for Foothills County is A, #163 of 474 in Alberta and #557 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Foothills County
Smoking runs low
Around Foothills County, only 6.2% of adults smoke daily, part of a smoking rate lower than most Canadian towns’ regions. Conditions and habits ↓
Far from a hospital
Residents of Foothills County live much further from a hospital than in the typical Canadian town (6.2 km from its centre of population), and 0% are more than 30 km away. Getting care ↓
A long-lived region
Foothills County’s region sits 1.5 years above the typical Canadian town, and those reaching 65 have 21.7 years ahead (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
Self-rated health runs high
Even once age is allowed for, 4.8 points more adults here call their health very good or excellent than in the typical town’s region (57% as answered). Health survey ↓
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.
Foothills County grades A 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: #163 of 474 in Alberta and #557 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.
17% of the region’s adults have high blood pressure and 6.7% 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, 27%, trails Alberta (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.
From Foothills County, a hospital is 11 km away on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Foothills County’s own, not the region’s.
Compared with 3.1 km for the typical town in Alberta and 3.7 km for the typical Canadian town, Foothills County is on the far side. 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.
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 lives longer than this one; the shortest-lived reaches 78.3, a gap of 4.7 years.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
The index is context and never graded: it describes Foothills County’s own areas, averaged over residents, on each of its four dimensions.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
Self-rated health beats Alberta: 57% very good or excellent, against 54%
The survey’s answers for the region as given, each beside the province’s (the tick).
Share of adults, as answered · 2023/2024
Asked about their mental health, 54% of adults here said very good or excellent; across Alberta it was 52%, and 23% reported most days stressful.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Just under the trend for regions as deprived
One dot per health region, 102 in all, since life expectancy and the index are published for regions; Foothills County’s dot is marked, close to the line.
Life expectancy and deprivation move in opposite directions across 102 regions (correlation −0.83); at 2.3, the expected figure is 83.2 years, and Foothills County’s region matches it closely with 83.0. The 10 regions scored most like it mostly do worse (7 of 10), with a median of 82.8.
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.
Further from a hospital than most towns its size: Foothills County comes 30th of 40
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 24,483 to 27,159 people, median 4.5 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Loyola QC A | 26,607 | 0.6 km | 54% |
| 2 | Sault-au-Récollet QC A | 25,464 | 0.7 km | 54% |
| 3 | Cartierville QC A | 24,617 | 0.8 km | 54% |
| 28 | Tecumseh ON B | 25,554 | 10 km | 52% |
| 29 | Kingsville ON B | 25,302 | 10 km | 52% |
| 30 | Foothills County AB A | 25,789 | 11 km | 56% |
| 31 | Lunenburg NS D | 26,862 | 12 km | 44% |
| 32 | Oro-Medonte ON B+ | 24,681 | 12 km | 54% |
| 40 | Enfield NS D− | 26,960 | 26 km | 42% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Foothills County
The places around, with the distance to a hospital and their regions’ figures. Tap a town for its health page.
Every place around Foothills County shares its health region, so their survey figures match; only the distance to care differs. Okotoks is the closest to care, 1.7 km to Foothills County’s 11 km.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Regional figures. Every place in the health region carries the same survey and life-expectancy figures; what is measured for Foothills County itself is the trip to care.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Questions about health in Foothills County
How healthy is Foothills County?
The region beats the typical Canadian town on each of its four survey and life-expectancy figures. Its chronic-condition figure, age-standardised, is 16%.
What is the life expectancy in Foothills County?
Women in Foothills County’s region live to 85.0 on average and men to 80.9, Statistics Canada’s 2022/2024 estimate.
How far is Foothills County from a hospital?
Residents of Foothills County have a pharmacy 9.4 km away on average, in a straight line.
How is Foothills County’s Health Grade worked out?
Not so far; the grade arrives with Canada’s grading run and will set the region’s figures, plus Foothills County’s own distance to care, against the typical Canadian town.
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).