Photo: Brett Snyder ( 1brettsnyder at en.wikipedia ) · CC BY 1.0Life expectancy around Newell County is 78.7 years, 2.8 less than for the typical Canadian town
About as many adults call their health very good or excellent here as across Alberta, 52% against 53%. For Newell County itself the measure is access, and it lags: 18 km to the nearest hospital, where 3.7 km is typical. The Health grade for Newell County is C+, #414 of 474 in Alberta and #2,206 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Newell County
Hospital care at a distance
Distance is Newell County’s own health question: 15% of residents live beyond 30 km of a hospital, and the trip from its centre is 4.8 km. Getting care ↓
A long way to a pharmacy
Picking up a prescription in Newell County takes a trip of 22 km on average to the nearest mapped pharmacy. 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.
Newell 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: #414 of 474 in Alberta and #2,206 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.
From Newell County, a hospital is 18 km away on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Newell County’s own, not the region’s.
From Newell County that is further than the 3.1 km of the typical town in Alberta, and the 3.7 km of the typical Canadian town. Homes are spread out: from the town’s centre of population the hospital is 4.8 km, while the average resident is 18 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.
Shorter lives than deprivation would give: 1.2 years behind the trend
These are health regions, 102 of them, not towns: the survey and life expectancy are published that way, so the dot for Newell County’s region, below the line, stands for every town in it.
The trend through 102 regions (correlation −0.83) gives a region scored 3.3 about 79.9 years of life. Newell County’s region falls short of it, at 78.7. All 10 regions closest to it on the index live longer; their middle figure is 81.2 years. Households here earn around $83,000, more than in most regions, but the region still lives less long than most; across regions income barely tracks life expectancy (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.
22% of the region’s adults have high blood pressure and 9.3% 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 39%, self-reported obesity is above Alberta’s 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.
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
Life expectancy in Alberta runs from 78.3 to 83.0; this region sits 4th of the 5.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
The index is context and never graded: it describes Newell 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.
53% in the region call their health very good or excellent, close to 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
Mental health reads like the rest of Alberta: 53% against 52%, and 22% under quite a bit of stress most days.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Newell County is 34th of 40 towns its size for nearness to a hospital
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 7,723 to 7,974 people, median 5.5 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Central St. Boniface MB B+ | 7,772 | 0.8 km | 52% |
| 2 | Queen Mary Park AB B+ | 7,958 | 1.0 km | 51% |
| 3 | Killarney/Glengarry AB A+ | 7,935 | 1.1 km | 56% |
| 32 | Bayham ON C+ | 7,935 | 16 km | 49% |
| 33 | Whitewater Region ON C | 7,899 | 17 km | 50% |
| 34 | Newell County AB C+ | 7,846 | 18 km | 52% |
| 35 | Kenora, Unorganized ON D | 7,877 | 19 km | 44% |
| 36 | Cypress County AB C+ | 7,855 | 20 km | 52% |
| 40 | Acton Vale QC B+ | 7,945 | 26 km | 55% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Newell County
The places around, with the distance to a hospital and their regions’ figures. Tap a town for its health page.
Same region, same survey: Newell County’s neighbours differ only in how far they are from a hospital. Brooks is the closest to care, 1.3 km to Newell County’s 18 km.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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.
- Adjusted for age. Because older people report more illness, the grade uses age-standardised shares; the charts above show the unadjusted answers.
- Who the survey asks. The health survey leaves out people living on reserves, full-time Canadian Forces members, people in institutions, and Nunavik and the Cree lands of James Bay.
- 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.
- Regional figures. Statistics Canada reports the survey and life expectancy by health region, not by town: Newell County shares them with its neighbours, while the distances are measured for it alone.
- 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.
Questions about health in Newell County
How far is Newell County from a hospital?
Beyond the hospital, the average home in Newell County is 22 km from a pharmacy; clinics are too sparsely listed in the province to say.
What is the life expectancy in Newell County?
Life expectancy comes by health region: 80.6 for women, 76.8 for men around Newell County (2022/2024).
How is Newell County’s Health Grade worked out?
Canada’s grades haven’t been set, so Newell County has none yet; when they are, Health will set its region and its hospital distance against the typical Canadian town.
How healthy is Newell County?
Most of the region’s figures sit on the less healthy side of the typical Canadian town’s, though not all. On arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure, the region’s average share is 19%.
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).