Photo: Umbra Lab, Inc. · CC BY 4.0Lives run shorter around Lacombe County: 79.1 years, 2.4 below the typical Canadian town’s region
Across the region, 52% of adults say their health is very good or excellent, much as in Alberta (53%). The town’s own part is the trip to care, and Lacombe County’s is long: 15 km to a hospital on average, against 3.7 km typical. Lacombe County grades C for health, #425 of 474 in Alberta and #2,297 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Lacombe County
Far from a hospital
Residents of Lacombe County live much further from a hospital than in the typical Canadian town (2.8 km from its centre of population), and 4% are more than 30 km away. Getting care ↓
A region that smokes more
Around Lacombe County, 12% of adults smoke daily, part of a smoking rate higher than most Canadian towns’ regions. Conditions and habits ↓
No pharmacy close by
Picking up a prescription in Lacombe County takes a trip of 15 km on average to the nearest mapped pharmacy. Getting care ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Lacombe County 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: #425 of 474 in Alberta and #2,297 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.
The nearest hospital is 15 km from the average home in Lacombe County
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Lacombe County’s own, not the region’s.
Residents of Lacombe County travel further than most of the province: the typical town in Alberta is 3.1 km from a hospital, the typical Canadian town 3.7 km. Homes are spread out: from the town’s centre of population the hospital is 2.8 km, while the average resident is 15 km away. 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.
High blood pressure for 24% of adults in the region, diabetes for 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
Self-reported obesity, 39%, tops 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.
Behind regions as deprived by 0.8 years of life
One dot per health region, 102 in all, since life expectancy and the index are published for regions; Lacombe County’s dot is marked, under the line.
Deprivation accounts for much of the spread between regions (correlation −0.83 over 102), but not for all of Lacombe County’s region’s: 79.1 years where the line expects 79.9 at 3.3. Its 10 closest matches on deprivation lean longer-lived: 9 of them above it, a median of 81.2. A household income of about $85,000, 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.
How the 5 health regions in Alberta compare on life expectancy
Regional life expectancy in Alberta, then the town’s place on the national deprivation index.
Life expectancy at birth by health region · 2022/2024
Of the 5 health regions in Alberta, 3rd place goes to this one, between a low of 78.3 and a high of 83.0.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
Higher means more deprived: the bars average the quintiles of the areas Lacombe County’s residents live in, and none of them counts toward Health.
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
Asked about their mental health, 54% of adults here said very good or excellent; across Alberta it was 52%, and 22% reported most days stressful.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Among 40 towns its size, Lacombe County is 37th nearest a hospital
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 10,845 to 11,333 people, median 3.8 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cabbagetown-South St.James Town ON A | 11,205 | 0.7 km | 50% |
| 2 | Penetanguishene ON A− | 11,141 | 0.8 km | 54% |
| 3 | Bendale South ON A | 10,885 | 0.9 km | 50% |
| 35 | Thornbury ON C+ | 11,162 | 12 km | 48% |
| 36 | Liverpool NS D | 10,997 | 13 km | 44% |
| 37 | Lacombe County AB C | 11,072 | 15 km | 52% |
| 38 | Wendover ON C | 10,896 | 15 km | 49% |
| 39 | Farnham QC A− | 11,315 | 20 km | 57% |
| 40 | Yellowhead County AB D− | 10,966 | 27 km | 48% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Lacombe County
The places around, with the distance to a hospital and their regions’ figures. Tap a town for its health page.
| Town | Hospital | Very good health | Life exp. | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lacombe County | 15 km | 52% | 79.1 | C |
| Lacombe 4.2 km | 1.8 km | 52% | 79.1 | C+ |
| Blackfalds 7.3 km | 9.2 km | 52% | 79.1 | C |
| Bentley 18 km | 0.3 km | 52% | 79.1 | B− |
The neighbours all sit in Lacombe County’s health region, which is why their regional columns are identical. Residents of Bentley live nearer a hospital, at 0.3 km against 15 km in Lacombe County.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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.
- Regional figures. Every place in the health region carries the same survey and life-expectancy figures; what is measured for Lacombe County itself is the trip to care.
- Who the survey asks. The survey’s frame skips reserves and other Indigenous settlements, institutions, the Forces and two Québec regions, so their figures come from elsewhere or not at all.
- Deprivation is context. None of the four deprivation scores enters the grade; they come from the 2021 index, which skips the territories.
- 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.
- 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.
Questions about health in Lacombe County
How is Lacombe County’s Health Grade worked out?
Not yet: Health will weigh the region’s survey and life expectancy and Lacombe County’s distance to a hospital against the typical Canadian town once Canada’s grading run happens.
What is the life expectancy in Lacombe County?
Women in Lacombe County’s region live to 81.7 on average and men to 76.6, Statistics Canada’s 2022/2024 estimate.
How far is Lacombe County from a hospital?
Residents of Lacombe County have a pharmacy 15 km away on average, in a straight line.
How healthy is Lacombe County?
Self-rated health, chronic conditions, smoking and life expectancy all come out behind the typical Canadian town. Chronic conditions there average 19% across arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure.
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).