Photo: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit , Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center · Public domainSpecial Area No. 3’s region trails the typical Canadian town by 2.8 years: life expectancy 78.7
On self-rated health the region tracks the province: 52% very good or excellent, 53% for Alberta. What sets Special Area No. 3 apart within its region is a longer trip to hospital, 25 km for the average resident (3.7 km typical). The Health grade for Special Area No. 3 is C.
What stands out about health in Special Area No. 3
A long way to hospital
For 25% of homes in Special Area No. 3 the nearest hospital is over 30 km off; from the town’s centre of population it is 23 km. Getting care ↓
No pharmacy close by
Picking up a prescription in Special Area No. 3 takes a trip of 84 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.
Special Area No. 3 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.
From Special Area No. 3, a hospital is 25 km away on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Special Area No. 3’s own, not the region’s.
Special Area No. 3 is further out 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.
1.2 fewer years of life than regions as deprived
Regions, not towns, with every town in a region sharing its dot: of the 102, the marked one, Special Area No. 3’s, lies beneath the trend.
Deprivation accounts for much of the spread between regions (correlation −0.83 over 102), but not for all of Special Area No. 3’s region’s: 78.7 years where the line expects 79.9 at 3.3. Against the 10 regions with the nearest deprivation scores, all live longer; the middle of the group is 81.2 years. Its towns’ household income, about $83,000, 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.
22% of the region’s adults have high blood pressure and 9.3% 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
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.
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
Ranked 4th of 5 in Alberta: the regions span 78.3 to 83.0 years at birth.
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 Special Area No. 3’s own areas.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
About as many rate their health highly here as in Alberta: 53% and 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
The region’s 53% in very good or excellent mental health is within reach of Alberta’s 52%, with 22% reporting stressful 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
- 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.
- 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. The survey figures and life expectancy are published for the health region, so every town in it shares them and only the distances are Special Area No. 3’s own.
Questions about health in Special Area No. 3
How far is Special Area No. 3 from a hospital?
A pharmacy is 84 km from the average resident of Special Area No. 3, as the crow flies; clinic lists here are too thin to measure.
What is the life expectancy in Special Area No. 3?
Statistics Canada publishes it for Special Area No. 3’s health region only: 80.6 years for women and 76.8 for men (2022/2024).
How is Special Area No. 3’s Health Grade worked out?
Canada’s grades haven’t been set, so Special Area No. 3 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. 3?
The region does worse than the typical Canadian town on most regional measures, with at least one exception. The three chronic conditions the grade counts average 19% of adults.
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).