Lesser Slave River No. 124 scores below 96% 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. What sets Lesser Slave River No. 124 apart within its region is distance: 29 km to a hospital on average, over 30 km for 37% of residents. The Health grade for Lesser Slave River No. 124 is D−, #470 of 474 in Alberta and #2,564 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Lesser Slave River No. 124
A region where lives run shorter
Born around Lesser Slave River No. 124, a child can expect 3.2 fewer years than in the typical Canadian town’s region; at 65, another 19.7 (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
A long way to hospital
Distance is Lesser Slave River No. 124’s own health question: 37% of residents live beyond 30 km of a hospital, and the trip from its centre is 10 km. Getting care ↓
Smoking runs high
Smoking is commoner around Lesser Slave River No. 124 than in the typical Canadian town’s region, and 14% of adults smoke every day. Conditions and habits ↓
A heavier load of illness
Arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure are commoner here than in the typical town’s region, even for its ages: 22% report high blood pressure and 9.9% diabetes. Conditions and habits ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Lesser Slave River No. 124 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: #470 of 474 in Alberta and #2,564 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.
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 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
Context only: each bar is the residents’ average quintile on one dimension of Statistics Canada’s index, for Lesser Slave River No. 124’s own areas.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
The nearest hospital is 29 km from the average home in Lesser Slave River No. 124
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Lesser Slave River No. 124’s own, not the region’s.
Lesser Slave River No. 124 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 10 km, while the average resident is 29 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 22% of adults in the region, diabetes for 9.9%
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, 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.
About as long-lived as regions this deprived, if slightly less
Plotted region by region (102 in all, since towns have no figures of their own), Lesser Slave River No. 124’s region comes out on the trend.
At 3.7 on the index, regions tend to reach 78.5 years (correlation −0.83, 102 regions), and the one Lesser Slave River No. 124 belongs to reaches 78.3. Most of the 10 regions with the nearest deprivation scores outlive it (7 of 10, median 78.9 years). Its towns’ household income, about $112,000, sits above most regions’ while its life expectancy sits below; across regions it is the deprivation index, not income, that follows lives (income’s 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%
The survey’s answers for the region as given, each beside the province’s (the tick).
Share of adults, as answered · 2023/2024
On mental health the region is behind Alberta, 48% very good or excellent to 52%; 24% describe most days as quite a bit stressful.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Further from a hospital than most towns its size: Lesser Slave River No. 124 comes 39th of 40
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 2,938 to 3,022 people, median 6.7 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dewdney Place SK B+ | 3,021 | 0.9 km | 49% |
| 2 | Buchanan ON B | 3,006 | 1.0 km | 53% |
| 3 | Wawa ON C− | 2,943 | 1.2 km | 46% |
| 37 | Division No. 1, Subdivision E NL D− | 2,978 | 27 km | 44% |
| 38 | Stanstead QC A− | 2,994 | 27 km | 57% |
| 39 | Lesser Slave River No. 124 AB D− | 2,980 | 29 km | 48% |
| 40 | Markstay-Warren ON D | 2,990 | 32 km | 51% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Lesser Slave River No. 124
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lesser Slave River No. 124 | 29 km | 48% | 78.3 | D− |
| Slave Lake 11 km | 1.0 km | 48% | 78.3 | C− |
The table’s survey and life-expectancy columns are one region’s, Lesser Slave River No. 124’s; read across for the hospital trip. Residents of Slave Lake live nearer a hospital, at 1.0 km against 29 km in Lesser Slave River No. 124.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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.
- 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.
- Regional figures. Every place in the health region carries the same survey and life-expectancy figures; what is measured for Lesser Slave River No. 124 itself is the trip to care.
- 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 Lesser Slave River No. 124
How far is Lesser Slave River No. 124 from a hospital?
Residents of Lesser Slave River No. 124 have a pharmacy 32 km away on average, in a straight line.
What is the life expectancy in Lesser Slave River No. 124?
There is no figure for Lesser Slave River No. 124 alone; its health region’s is 80.9 for women and 76.1 for men in 2022/2024.
How healthy is Lesser Slave River No. 124?
The region trails the typical Canadian town on each of its four survey and life-expectancy figures. Chronic conditions there average 21% across arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure.
How is Lesser Slave River No. 124’s Health Grade worked out?
Not so far; the grade arrives with Canada’s grading run and will set the region’s figures, plus Lesser Slave River No. 124’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).