Photo: Nuggets · CC BY 3.0On health, Yellowhead County falls short of 96% of Canadian towns
Across the region, 48% of adults say their health is very good or excellent; Alberta as a whole reaches 53%. What sets Yellowhead County apart within its region is distance: 27 km to a hospital on average, over 30 km for 47% of residents. Health gives Yellowhead County a grade of D−, #469 of 474 in Alberta and #2,563 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Yellowhead County
Shorter lives in the region
Yellowhead County’s region sits 3.2 years below the typical Canadian town, and those reaching 65 have 19.7 years ahead (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
Hospital care at a distance
Distance is Yellowhead County’s own health question: 47% of residents live beyond 30 km of a hospital, and the trip from its centre is 25 km. Getting care ↓
A region that smokes more
Around Yellowhead County, 14% of adults smoke daily, part of a smoking rate higher than most Canadian towns’ regions. Conditions and habits ↓
More chronic illness
Arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure are commoner here than in the typical town’s region, even for its ages: 22% report high blood pressure and 9.9% diabetes. Conditions and habits ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Yellowhead County grades D− 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: #469 of 474 in Alberta and #2,563 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.
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
This is the shortest-lived of the 5 regions in Alberta, 4.7 years behind the first at 83.0.
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 Yellowhead 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.
The nearest hospital is 27 km from the average home in Yellowhead County
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Yellowhead County’s own, not the region’s.
From Yellowhead 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. 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.
22% of the region’s adults have high blood pressure and 9.9% 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
Obesity runs higher than in the province, at 41% of adults against 32% for Alberta. Heavy drinking runs above the province, 25% to 19%.
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.
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 Yellowhead County’s lies near the line.
More deprivation, shorter lives: that holds across the 102 regions (correlation −0.83), and Yellowhead County’s region fits it, 78.3 years at 3.7 against the line’s 78.5. Set beside its 10 nearest neighbours on the index, it trails the majority, 7 of 10; their median is 78.9 years. Judged by income, around $112,000 a household, the region would look well placed, but income tracks life expectancy only weakly between regions (0.14), and this one lives less long than most.
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.
49% in the region call their health very good or excellent, fewer than in 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
Fewer adults here report very good or excellent mental health than across Alberta (48% against 52%), while 24% call most days stressful.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Among 40 towns its size, Yellowhead County is 40th nearest a hospital
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 10,745 to 11,177 people, median 4.0 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Penetanguishene ON A− | 11,141 | 0.8 km | 54% |
| 2 | Bendale South ON A | 10,885 | 0.9 km | 50% |
| 3 | Vieux Greenfield Park QC A | 10,998 | 1.1 km | 55% |
| 38 | Morinville AB B− | 10,763 | 16 km | 51% |
| 39 | Shelburne ON B− | 10,767 | 21 km | 51% |
| 40 | Yellowhead County AB D− | 10,966 | 27 km | 48% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Deprivation is context. Statistics Canada’s 2021 deprivation index describes the town’s own areas for context only, with no index for the territories.
- 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.
- Two regions. About 28% of Yellowhead County’s residents live in Edmonton Zone, a second health region; the page shows the region most residents live in.
- 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. Statistics Canada reports the survey and life expectancy by health region, not by town: Yellowhead County shares them with its neighbours, while the distances are measured for it alone.
Questions about health in Yellowhead County
How far is Yellowhead County from a hospital?
Beyond the hospital, the average home in Yellowhead County is 28 km from a pharmacy; clinics are too sparsely listed in the province to say.
What is the life expectancy in Yellowhead County?
There is no figure for Yellowhead County alone; its health region’s is 80.9 for women and 76.1 for men in 2022/2024.
How is Yellowhead County’s Health Grade worked out?
No letter yet for Yellowhead County: Canada is graded in one run, and Health will then compare its region and its access to care with the typical Canadian town.
How healthy is Yellowhead County?
Self-rated health, chronic conditions, smoking and life expectancy all come out behind the typical Canadian town. Chronic conditions there average 21% across arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure.
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).