Photo: Qyd · CC BY 2.5Grande Cache scores below 95% of Canadian towns for health
The survey puts the region’s share in very good or excellent health at 48%, behind the 53% for Alberta. The town’s own part is the trip to care: residents of Grande Cache live 22 km from a hospital on average, and 36% of them more than 30 km. Grande Cache grades D− for health, #465 of 474 in Alberta and #2,556 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Grande Cache
Life expectancy below the norm
Life expectancy in the region around Grande Cache runs 3.2 years behind the typical Canadian town’s, and at 65 people can expect 19.7 more years (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
Far from a hospital
For 36% of homes in Grande Cache the nearest hospital is over 30 km off; from the town’s centre of population it is 45 km. Getting care ↓
Smoking runs high
The age-standardised smoking rate around Grande Cache 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.
Grande Cache grades D− 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: #465 of 474 in Alberta and #2,556 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.
How the 5 health regions in Alberta compare on life expectancy
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
No region of the 5 in Alberta has shorter lives than this one; the longest-lived reaches 83.0, a gap of 4.7 years.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
This is the one part of the block measured for Grande Cache 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.
From Grande Cache, a hospital is 22 km away on average
Straight-line distances from each part of Grande Cache, weighted by who lives there.
Grande Cache is further out than the provincial norm of 3.1 km in Alberta, and than the typical Canadian town at 3.7 km. Homes are spread out: from the town’s centre of population the hospital is 45 km, while the average resident is 22 km away. 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.
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
At 41%, self-reported obesity is above Alberta’s 32%. Heavy drinking is commoner too (25% against 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.
Just under the trend for regions as deprived
Each dot is a health region, not a town, its figures shared by every town in it; Grande Cache’s region sits on the trend line through 102 regions.
Deprivation explains most of the gap between regions (correlation −0.83 over 102), and Grande Cache’s region is a typical case: 78.3 years at a score of 3.7, where the trend says 78.5. Narrow the field to the 10 regions most like it on deprivation and 7 still live longer, with 78.9 years in the middle. Income would point the wrong way: households in the region’s towns earn about $112,000, 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.
Fewer people rate their health highly here than in Alberta: 49% to 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 trails Alberta: 48% very good or excellent to 52%, with 24% facing stressful days.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Grande Cache is 39th of 40 towns its size for nearness to a hospital
The 40 Canadian towns nearest its population (8,794 to 9,188 people), nearest a hospital first; their median is 4.3 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Corktown ON B+ | 8,952 | 0.3 km | 53% |
| 2 | North Central SK B+ | 9,124 | 0.7 km | 49% |
| 3 | Booth MB B+ | 9,016 | 0.9 km | 52% |
| 37 | Sainte-Brigitte-de-Laval QC A+ | 9,084 | 17 km | 62% |
| 38 | Camrose County AB C | 8,951 | 17 km | 52% |
| 39 | Grande Cache AB D− | 8,984 | 22 km | 48% |
| 40 | Kimberley BC B− | 9,037 | 24 km | 57% |
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. People on reserves and in institutions, full-time military members and the residents of Nunavik and Eeyou Istchee aren’t interviewed by the survey.
- 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.
- What counts as a hospital. Hospitals and clinics come from Statistics Canada’s facilities database, built from provincial lists of different dates, and a listed hospital may have no emergency department.
- Deprivation is context. None of the four deprivation scores enters the grade; they come from the 2021 index, which skips the territories.
- Distances are straight lines. A straight line from each neighbourhood’s centre to the nearest facility, weighted by who lives there, is shorter than any drive.
- Regional figures. Every place in the health region carries the same survey and life-expectancy figures; what is measured for Grande Cache itself is the trip to care.
Questions about health in Grande Cache
How far is Grande Cache from a hospital?
Residents of Grande Cache have a pharmacy 64 km away on average, in a straight line.
What is the life expectancy in Grande Cache?
Life expectancy comes by health region: 80.9 for women, 76.1 for men around Grande Cache (2022/2024).
How is Grande Cache’s Health Grade worked out?
No letter yet for Grande Cache: Canada is graded in one run, and Health will then compare its region and its access to care with the typical Canadian town.
How healthy is Grande Cache?
The region trails the typical Canadian town on each of its four survey and life-expectancy figures. Its chronic-condition figure, age-standardised, is 21%.
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).