Photo: WinterE229 WinterforceMedia · CC0Around Sturgeon County, 51% of adults call their health very good or excellent
For 2022/2024, the region’s figure is 81.2 years at birth, 83.6 for women and 78.8 for men. What sets Sturgeon County apart within its region is a longer trip to hospital, 13 km for the average resident (3.7 km typical). The Health grade for Sturgeon County is B−, #380 of 474 in Alberta and #1,954 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Sturgeon County
Hospital care at a distance
Residents of Sturgeon County live much further from a hospital than in the typical Canadian town (13 km from its centre of population), and 0% are more than 30 km away. Getting care ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Sturgeon County grades B− 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: #380 of 474 in Alberta and #1,954 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.
Getting to hospital from Sturgeon County: 13 km on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Sturgeon County’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, Sturgeon County is on the far side. 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.
About as long-lived as regions this deprived, if slightly less
Every town shares its health region’s figures, so this compares 102 regions; the one holding Sturgeon County’s lies near the line.
Life expectancy and deprivation move in opposite directions across 102 regions (correlation −0.83); at 2.8, the expected figure is 81.4 years, and Sturgeon County’s region matches it closely with 81.2. Half the 10 regions scored most like it do better (4) and half worse (4), around a median of 81.2.
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.
19% of the region’s adults have high blood pressure and 7.4% 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
On weight the region is ordinary for Alberta: 33% report obesity, 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.
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
Life expectancy in Alberta runs from 78.3 to 83.0; this region sits 2nd of the 5.
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 Sturgeon 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.
52% 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
For 24% of adults most days are quite a bit stressful, and 51% rate their mental health very good or excellent, near Alberta’s 52%.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Sturgeon County is 39th of 40 towns its size for nearness to a hospital
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 20,650 to 21,663 people, median 2.5 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Parkdale ON A | 21,663 | 0.5 km | 50% |
| 2 | East L'Amoreaux ON A | 21,533 | 0.6 km | 50% |
| 3 | Englemount-Lawrence ON A | 21,455 | 0.7 km | 50% |
| 37 | Varennes QC A | 21,490 | 8.0 km | 55% |
| 38 | Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures QC A+ | 20,864 | 10 km | 62% |
| 39 | Sturgeon County AB B− | 21,144 | 13 km | 51% |
| 40 | South Frontenac ON B− | 21,599 | 22 km | 53% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Sturgeon 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sturgeon County | 13 km | 51% | 81.2 | B− |
| Morinville 7.5 km | 16 km | 51% | 81.2 | B− |
| Bon Accord 13 km | 19 km | 51% | 81.2 | B− |
| Elsinore 14 km | 6.9 km | 51% | 81.2 | B |
| St. Albert 14 km | 2.6 km | 51% | 81.2 | B+ |
| Canossa 14 km | 7.1 km | 51% | 81.2 | B |
| Rapperswill 14 km | 6.5 km | 51% | 81.2 | B |
One health region covers Sturgeon County and every place in the table, so the survey and life-expectancy columns read the same. St. Albert is the closest to care, 2.6 km to Sturgeon County’s 13 km.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Distances are straight lines. Each small census area is measured as the crow flies to the nearest facility and weighted by its 2021 residents, so real trips run longer.
- 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.
- 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.
- Deprivation is context. The Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation (2021) is context, never graded, and the territories have none.
- What counts as a hospital. Facility locations come from Statistics Canada’s open database; records without coordinates sit at their postal code, and not every hospital has an emergency room.
- 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 Sturgeon County’s own.
Questions about health in Sturgeon County
How far is Sturgeon County from a hospital?
A pharmacy is 8.4 km from the average resident of Sturgeon County, as the crow flies; clinic lists here are too thin to measure.
How is Sturgeon County’s Health Grade worked out?
Not yet: Health will weigh the region’s survey and life expectancy and Sturgeon County’s distance to a hospital against the typical Canadian town once Canada’s grading run happens.
What is the life expectancy in Sturgeon County?
For the health region that includes Sturgeon County, women can expect 83.6 years and men 78.8 (2022/2024).
How healthy is Sturgeon County?
On every regional measure, the region does worse than the typical Canadian town. The three chronic conditions the grade counts average 18% 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).