Photo: George Dean · CC BY-SA 3.0On health, Electoral Area E, Bulkley-Nechako falls short of 94% of Canadian towns
Adults here are less upbeat about their health than the province: 39% very good or excellent, against 50% in British Columbia. The town’s own part is the trip to care: residents of Electoral Area E, Bulkley-Nechako live 31 km from a hospital on average, and 35% of them more than 30 km. Electoral Area E, Bulkley-Nechako grades D for health.
What stands out about health in Electoral Area E, Bulkley-Nechako
A region where lives run shorter
Electoral Area E, Bulkley-Nechako’s region sits 4.9 years below the typical Canadian town, and those reaching 65 have 18.9 years ahead (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
Self-rated health runs low
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 ↓
Far from a hospital
For 35% of homes in Electoral Area E, Bulkley-Nechako the nearest hospital is over 30 km off; from the town’s centre of population it is 29 km. Getting care ↓
Below the trend for its deprivation
For a deprivation score of 3.7, the trend across regions gives 78.3 years of life; Electoral Area E, Bulkley-Nechako’s region reaches only 76.6. For its deprivation ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Electoral Area E, 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.
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
No region of the 16 in British Columbia has shorter lives than this one; the longest-lived reaches 86.8, a gap of 10.2 years.
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 Electoral Area E, Bulkley-Nechako’s own areas.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
Self-rated health trails British Columbia: 39% very good or excellent, against 50%
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 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 E, Bulkley-Nechako, a hospital is 31 km away on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Electoral Area E, Bulkley-Nechako’s own, not the region’s.
Compared with 4.4 km for the typical town in British Columbia and 3.7 km for the typical Canadian town, Electoral Area E, Bulkley-Nechako is on the far side.
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.
Deprivation predicts more: the region falls 1.7 years short of the trend
Regions, not towns, with every town in a region sharing its dot: of the 102, the marked one, Electoral Area E, Bulkley-Nechako’s, lies beneath the trend.
Life expectancy and deprivation move in opposite directions across 102 regions (correlation −0.83); at 3.7, the expected figure is 78.3 years, and Electoral Area E, Bulkley-Nechako’s region falls below with 76.6. Its 10 closest matches on deprivation lean longer-lived: 9 of them above it, 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.
High blood pressure for 26% of adults in the region, diabetes for 10%
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 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.
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.
- 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.
- Regional figures. Statistics Canada reports the survey and life expectancy by health region, not by town: Electoral Area E, Bulkley-Nechako shares them with its neighbours, while the distances are measured for it alone.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Questions about health in Electoral Area E, Bulkley-Nechako
How healthy is Electoral Area E, Bulkley-Nechako?
Self-rated health, chronic conditions, smoking and life expectancy all come out behind the typical Canadian town. Chronic conditions there average 20% across arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure.
What is the life expectancy in Electoral Area E, Bulkley-Nechako?
Women in Electoral Area E, Bulkley-Nechako’s region live to 79.5 on average and men to 74.0, Statistics Canada’s 2022/2024 estimate.
How far is Electoral Area E, Bulkley-Nechako from a hospital?
For everyday care, Electoral Area E, Bulkley-Nechako’s residents are 30 km from a pharmacy and 115 km from a clinic on average.
How is Electoral Area E, Bulkley-Nechako’s Health Grade worked out?
Not yet: Health will weigh the region’s survey and life expectancy and Electoral Area E, Bulkley-Nechako’s distance to a hospital against the typical Canadian town once Canada’s grading run happens.
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).