Photo: Shawn from Airdrie, Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0Life expectancy around Electoral Area C, Bulkley-Nechako is 76.6 years, 4.9 less than for the typical Canadian town
Adults here are less upbeat about their health than the province: 39% very good or excellent, against 50% in British Columbia. Closer to home, a hospital is 16 km from the average resident of Electoral Area C, Bulkley-Nechako, further than the usual 3.7 km. The Health grade for Electoral Area C, Bulkley-Nechako is D.
What stands out about health in Electoral Area C, Bulkley-Nechako
Fewer people feeling well
The survey’s age-standardised figure sits 12.4 points under the typical Canadian town’s, and 39% answered very good or excellent. Health survey ↓
Hospital care at a distance
Distance is Electoral Area C, Bulkley-Nechako’s own health question: 30% of residents live beyond 30 km of a hospital, and the trip from its centre is 6.0 km. Getting care ↓
Behind regions as deprived
Set against regions as deprived (3.7), Electoral Area C, Bulkley-Nechako’s region loses years: 76.6 where the trend says 78.3. For its deprivation ↓
Pharmacies far off
From the average home in Electoral Area C, Bulkley-Nechako, a pharmacy is 65 km away, a longer trip than most Canadians make for medicine. Getting care ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Electoral Area C, Bulkley-Nechako 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.
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.
Self-rated health trails British Columbia: 39% very good or excellent, against 50%
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
Fewer adults here report very good or excellent mental health than across British Columbia (40% against 49%), while 28% call most days stressful.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
From Electoral Area C, Bulkley-Nechako, a hospital is 16 km away on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Electoral Area C, Bulkley-Nechako’s own, not the region’s.
Electoral Area C, Bulkley-Nechako is further out than the provincial norm of 4.4 km in British Columbia, and than the typical Canadian town at 3.7 km. The centre of population is 6.0 km from a hospital, but spread-out homes take the residents’ average to 16 km.
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.
1.7 fewer years of life than regions as deprived
These are health regions, 102 of them, not towns: the survey and life expectancy are published that way, so the dot for Electoral Area C, Bulkley-Nechako’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 Electoral Area C, Bulkley-Nechako’s region’s: 76.6 years where the line expects 78.3 at 3.7. The 10 regions scored most like it mostly do better (9 of 10), with a median of 78.5. Income would point the wrong way: households in the region’s towns earn about $87,000, more than in most regions, yet lives here are shorter than in most (across regions, income and life expectancy correlate at just 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.
26% of the region’s adults have high blood pressure and 10% 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
Obesity runs higher than in the province, at 41% of adults against 25% for British Columbia. Heavy drinking runs above the province, 22% 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.
How the 16 health regions in British Columbia compare on life expectancy
Regional life expectancy in British Columbia, 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 16 regions in British Columbia, 10.2 years behind the first at 86.8.
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 Electoral Area C, Bulkley-Nechako’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.
Health in the places around Electoral Area C, Bulkley-Nechako
Nearby places: distance to a hospital and each one’s regional figures. Tap a town for its health page.
| Town | Hospital | Very good health | Life exp. | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electoral Area C, Bulkley-Nechako | 16 km | 39% | 76.6 | D |
| Fort St. James 5.4 km | 1.1 km | 39% | 76.6 | C |
The neighbours all sit in Electoral Area C, Bulkley-Nechako’s health region, which is why their regional columns are identical. Fort St. James is the closest to care, 1.1 km to Electoral Area C, Bulkley-Nechako’s 16 km.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Regional figures. Every place in the health region carries the same survey and life-expectancy figures; what is measured for Electoral Area C, Bulkley-Nechako itself is the trip to care.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 Electoral Area C, Bulkley-Nechako
How healthy is Electoral Area C, Bulkley-Nechako?
The region trails the typical Canadian town on each of its four survey and life-expectancy figures. Chronic conditions there average 20% across arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure.
What is the life expectancy in Electoral Area C, Bulkley-Nechako?
For the health region that includes Electoral Area C, Bulkley-Nechako, women can expect 79.5 years and men 74.0 (2022/2024).
How far is Electoral Area C, Bulkley-Nechako from a hospital?
Beyond the hospital, the average home in Electoral Area C, Bulkley-Nechako is 66 km from a clinic and 65 km from a pharmacy.
How is Electoral Area C, Bulkley-Nechako’s Health Grade worked out?
Canada’s grades haven’t been set, so Electoral Area C, Bulkley-Nechako has none yet; when they are, Health will set its region and its hospital distance 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).