Photo: dave_7 from Lethbridge, Canada · CC BY 2.0Life expectancy around Taber is 78.7 years, 2.8 less than for the typical Canadian town
In the health survey, 52% of adults in the region rate their health very good or excellent, close to Alberta’s 53%. What sets Taber apart within its region is a longer trip to hospital, 22 km for the average resident (3.7 km typical). Health gives Taber a grade of C, #417 of 474 in Alberta and #2,240 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Taber
A long way to hospital
Residents of Taber live much further from a hospital than in the typical Canadian town (14 km from its centre of population), and 27% are more than 30 km away. Getting care ↓
A long way to a pharmacy
From the average home in Taber, a pharmacy is 53 km away, a longer trip than most Canadians make for medicine. Getting care ↓
More households under strain
On the index’s situational vulnerability, which follows housing, income and education, Taber’s neighbourhoods average 4.5 out of 5, among the most deprived fifth of the country. The wider area ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Taber 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: #417 of 474 in Alberta and #2,240 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 Taber: 22 km on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Taber’s own, not the region’s.
From Taber that is further than the 3.1 km of the typical town in Alberta, and the 3.7 km of the typical Canadian town. 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.
Longest and shortest lives among the 5 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
Context only: each bar is the residents’ average quintile on one dimension of Statistics Canada’s index, for Taber’s own areas.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
The region lives 1.2 years less than its deprivation predicts
One dot per health region, 102 in all, since life expectancy and the index are published for regions; Taber’s dot is marked, under the line.
Life expectancy drops as deprivation climbs across Canada’s 102 health regions (correlation −0.83); a score of 3.3 would suggest 79.9 years, but Taber’s region stops 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.
High blood pressure for 22% of adults in the region, diabetes for 9.3%
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.
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 is no outlier: 53% say very good or excellent (Alberta: 52%) and 22% live with stressful days.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Taber is 36th of 40 towns its size for nearness to a hospital
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 7,877 to 8,147 people, median 4.5 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Broadview BC A | 8,008 | 0.6 km | 48% |
| 2 | Wolseley MB B+ | 8,127 | 1.0 km | 52% |
| 3 | Queen Mary Park AB B+ | 7,958 | 1.0 km | 51% |
| 34 | Kenora, Unorganized ON D | 7,877 | 19 km | 44% |
| 35 | North Stormont ON C | 7,946 | 22 km | 49% |
| 36 | Taber AB C | 8,009 | 22 km | 52% |
| 37 | Cardinal ON C+ | 7,952 | 24 km | 51% |
| 38 | Acton Vale QC B+ | 7,945 | 26 km | 55% |
| 40 | Clare NS D− | 8,020 | 38 km | 44% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Taber
The places around, with the distance to a hospital and their regions’ figures. Tap a town for its health page.
One health region covers Taber and every place in the table, so the survey and life-expectancy columns read the same. Taber is the closest to care, 1.3 km to Taber’s 22 km.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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.
- Who the survey asks. Not everyone is in the survey’s sample: reserves, the Canadian Forces, institutions and two northern Québec regions are left out.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 Taber’s own.
- Deprivation is context. Statistics Canada’s 2021 deprivation index describes the town’s own areas for context only, with no index for the territories.
Questions about health in Taber
How far is Taber from a hospital?
A pharmacy is 53 km from the average resident of Taber, as the crow flies; clinic lists here are too thin to measure.
What is the life expectancy in Taber?
For the health region that includes Taber, women can expect 80.6 years and men 76.8 (2022/2024).
How healthy is Taber?
More of the region’s survey and life-expectancy figures trail the typical Canadian town than beat it. The three chronic conditions the grade counts average 19% of adults.
How is Taber’s Health Grade worked out?
It will once Canada’s single grading run is done, measured on the region’s survey and life expectancy and on how far Taber’s homes are from a hospital, 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).