Photo: Mascdman · CC BY-SA 2.5A hospital trip from Special Area No. 2 means 35 km on average, in a straight line
Across the region, 52% of adults say their health is very good or excellent, much as in Alberta (53%). For everyday care, the nearest pharmacy is 36 km away on average (0.0 within 3 km). The Health grade for Special Area No. 2 is C−.
What stands out about health in Special Area No. 2
A region where lives run shorter
Life expectancy in the region around Special Area No. 2 runs 2.4 years behind the typical Canadian town’s, and at 65 people can expect 19.9 more years (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
A region that smokes more
The age-standardised smoking rate around Special Area No. 2 is well above the typical town’s; 12% of adults are daily smokers. Conditions and habits ↓
A long way to a pharmacy
The nearest pharmacy on OpenStreetMap is 36 km from the average home in Special Area No. 2, so prescriptions mean a drive. 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.
Special Area No. 2 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.
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
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
The index is context and never graded: it describes Special Area No. 2’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.
In the region, high blood pressure (24%) and diabetes (8.9%)
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: 39%, the province 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.
Everyday care in Special Area No. 2: the nearest pharmacy 36 km away, 0.0 within 3 km
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Special Area No. 2’s own, not the region’s.
Compared with 3.1 km for the typical town in Alberta and 3.7 km for the typical Canadian town, Special Area No. 2 is on the far side. 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.
Deprivation predicts more: the region falls 0.8 years short of the trend
These are health regions, 102 of them, not towns: the survey and life expectancy are published that way, so the dot for Special Area No. 2’s region, below the line, stands for every town in it.
Deprivation accounts for much of the spread between regions (correlation −0.83 over 102), but not for all of Special Area No. 2’s region’s: 79.1 years where the line expects 79.9 at 3.3. Most of the 10 regions with the nearest deprivation scores outlive it (9 of 10, median 81.2 years). 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.
Fewer people rate their health highly here than in Alberta: 51% to 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
Mental health reads like the rest of Alberta: 54% 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.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two regions. About 40% of Special Area No. 2’s residents live in South Zone, a second health region; the page shows the region most residents live in.
- Regional figures. Every place in the health region carries the same survey and life-expectancy figures; what is measured for Special Area No. 2 itself is the trip to care.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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. 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.
Questions about health in Special Area No. 2
How far is Special Area No. 2 from a hospital?
Residents of Special Area No. 2 have a pharmacy 36 km away on average, in a straight line.
What is the life expectancy in Special Area No. 2?
Statistics Canada publishes it for Special Area No. 2’s health region only: 81.7 years for women and 76.6 for men (2022/2024).
How is Special Area No. 2’s Health Grade worked out?
Canada’s grades haven’t been set, so Special Area No. 2 has none yet; when they are, Health will set its region and its hospital distance against the typical Canadian town.
How healthy is Special Area No. 2?
Self-rated health, chronic conditions, smoking and life expectancy all come out behind the typical Canadian town. Its chronic-condition figure, age-standardised, 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).