Photo: Carl Young · CC BY-SA 4.0Life expectancy around High Level is 78.3 years, 3.2 less than for the typical Canadian town
The survey puts the region’s share in very good or excellent health at 48%, behind the 53% for Alberta. Closer to home, a hospital is just 1.0 km from the average resident of High Level, nearer than the usual 3.7 km. Health gives High Level a grade of C−, #439 of 474 in Alberta and #2,362 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in High Level
A region that smokes more
The age-standardised smoking rate around High Level is well above the typical town’s; 14% of adults are daily smokers. Conditions and habits ↓
Long-term conditions run high
High blood pressure (22%) and diabetes (9.9%) push the region’s chronic-condition figure above the typical Canadian town’s. Conditions and habits ↓
Harder circumstances
Statistics Canada’s deprivation index places High Level at 5.0 of 5 for situational vulnerability, close to the top band. The wider area ↓
Near a hospital
The hospital is close for almost everyone in High Level: 1.1 km from its centre of population. 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.
High Level 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: #439 of 474 in Alberta and #2,362 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
What the survey finds on conditions, weight and habits for the region, the province as the tick.
Conditions and weight · 2023/2024
Habits · 2023/2024
More adults report obesity than across Alberta: 41%, the province 32%. At 25%, heavy drinking beats the provincial 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.
The nearest hospital is 1.0 km from the average home in High Level
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is High Level’s own, not the region’s.
High Level 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.
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
Last of the 5 regions in Alberta: the highest figure is 83.0, 4.7 years above the lowest.
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 High Level’s own areas.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
Life expectancy close to where deprivation puts it, a shade under
These are health regions, 102 of them, not towns: the survey and life expectancy are published that way, so the dot for High Level’s region, on the line, stands for every town in it.
The line through 102 regions (correlation −0.83) gives a score of 3.7 about 78.5 years; High Level’s region’s 78.3 is within a year of it. Narrow the field to the 10 regions most like it on deprivation and 7 still live longer, with 78.9 years in the middle. A household income of about $112,000, high for a region, doesn’t come with longer lives here; across regions the two barely move together (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.
Self-rated health trails Alberta: 49% very good or excellent, against 54%
How adults in the health region answered the survey, not adjusted for age; the tick marks the province.
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.
Closer to a hospital than most towns its size: High Level comes 5th of 40
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 4,309 to 4,469 people, median 3.9 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Golden BC B+ | 4,433 | 0.7 km | 57% |
| 2 | Roslyn MB B+ | 4,411 | 0.7 km | 52% |
| 3 | Beaupré QC A+ | 4,314 | 0.8 km | 62% |
| 4 | Spence MB B+ | 4,378 | 0.9 km | 52% |
| 5 | High Level AB C− | 4,390 | 1.0 km | 48% |
| 6 | Central Park MB B+ | 4,328 | 1.1 km | 52% |
| 7 | South Calgary AB A+ | 4,412 | 1.2 km | 56% |
| 40 | Eganville ON C− | 4,326 | 32 km | 50% |
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
- 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.
- 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 High Level’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.
- Adjusted for age. Because older people report more illness, the grade uses age-standardised shares; the charts above show the unadjusted answers.
- Deprivation is context. Statistics Canada’s 2021 deprivation index describes the town’s own areas for context only, with no index for the territories.
- 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.
Questions about health in High Level
What is the life expectancy in High Level?
Women in High Level’s region live to 80.9 on average and men to 76.1, Statistics Canada’s 2022/2024 estimate.
How is High Level’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 High Level’s homes are from a hospital, against the typical Canadian town.
How healthy is High Level?
The region trails the typical Canadian town on each of its four survey and life-expectancy figures. On arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure, the region’s average share is 21%.
How far is High Level from a hospital?
A pharmacy is 0.7 km from the average resident of High Level, 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).