Health in Burns Lake · CCHS 2023/2024, Statistics Canada
Lives run shorter around Burns Lake: 76.6 years, 4.9 below the typical Canadian town’s region
The survey puts the region’s share in very good or excellent health at 39%, behind the 50% for British Columbia. For Burns Lake itself the measure is access, and it scores well: 0.8 km to the nearest hospital, where 3.7 km is typical. The Health grade for Burns Lake is C.
British Columbia: 50% · Area-wide: very good or excellent health, chronic conditions, smokers and life expectancy, counted over the Northern Interior Health Service Delivery Area
Chronic conditions
20%
arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure: average share
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 ↓
Below the trend for its deprivation
At 76.6 years, Burns Lake’s region trails the 78.3 that regions scoring 3.7 on the index typically reach. For its deprivation ↓
More chronic illness
High blood pressure (26%) and diabetes (10%) push the region’s chronic-condition figure above the typical Canadian town’s. Conditions and habits ↓
More households under strain
Statistics Canada’s deprivation index places Burns Lake at 4.6 of 5 for situational vulnerability, close to the top band. The wider area ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Health Grade
Burns Lake 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.
Very good or excellent health (39%)Better than 1% of Canadian towns
Chronic conditions (20%)Better than 17% of Canadian towns
Smokers (12%)Better than 63% of Canadian towns
Life expectancy (76.6)Better than 4% of Canadian towns
Distance to a hospital (0.8 km)Better than 96% of Canadian towns
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.
Health survey
Fewer people rate their health highly here than in British Columbia: 39% to 50%
The survey’s answers for the region as given, each beside the province’s (the tick).
Share of adults, as answered · 2023/2024
Health very good or excellent
39%
Health fair or poor
17%
Mental health very good or excellent
40%
Mental health fair or poor
23%
Most days quite a bit stressful
28%
Strong sense of belonging
60%
Satisfied with life
81%
British Columbia
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.
For its deprivation
Behind regions as deprived by 1.7 years of life
Every town shares its health region’s figures, so this compares 102 regions; the one holding Burns Lake’s lies below the line.
Situational vulnerability: residents’ average quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprivedLife expectancy at birth (years)
Use the deprivation index alone and Burns Lake’s region, at 3.7, should live about 78.3 years, the trend through 102 regions (correlation −0.83), but it reaches only 76.6. Set beside its 10 nearest neighbours on the index, it trails the majority, 9 of 10; their median is 78.5 years. Its towns’ household income, about $87,000, sits above most regions’ while its life expectancy sits below; across regions it is the deprivation index, not income, that follows lives (income’s 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.
Conditions and habits
In the region, high blood pressure (26%) and diabetes (10%)
Long-term conditions and habits as the region’s adults reported them; the tick marks the province.
Conditions and weight · 2023/2024
High blood pressure
26%
Arthritis
25%
Diabetes
10%
Obese (self-reported)
41%
Mood disorder
21%
Anxiety disorder
13%
Habits · 2023/2024
Smoke daily or now and then
12%
Smoke every day
8.8%
Heavy drinking
22%
British Columbia
Self-reported obesity, 41%, tops British Columbia (25%). More adults drink heavily, 22% to the province’s 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.
The wider area
Life expectancy across the 16 health regions in British Columbia
Regional life expectancy in British Columbia, then the town’s place on the national deprivation index.
76.6
years at birth, 2022/2024
18.9
more years expected at 65
16th
longest of 16 regions in British Columbia
Life expectancy at birth by health region · 2022/2024
Richmond Health Service Delivery Area86.8
Fraser North Health Service Delivery Area84.4
North Shore/Coast Garibaldi Health Service Delivery Area84.3
Vancouver Health Service Delivery Area83.3
Fraser South Health Service Delivery Area83.2
South Vancouver Island Health Service Delivery Area82.7
Okanagan Health Service Delivery Area81.0
East Kootenay Health Service Delivery Area80.5
Fraser East Health Service Delivery Area80.0
Central Vancouver Island Health Service Delivery Area79.8
Kootenay-Boundary Health Service Delivery Area79.5
North Vancouver Island Health Service Delivery Area79.5
Thompson/Cariboo Health Service Delivery Area78.8
Northwest Health Service Delivery Area77.0
Northeast Health Service Delivery Area76.9
Northern Interior Health Service Delivery Area76.6
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
Residential instability4.0
Economic dependency1.7
Ethno-cultural composition1.5
Situational vulnerability4.6
Context only: each bar is the residents’ average quintile on one dimension of Statistics Canada’s index, for Burns Lake’s own areas.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
Getting care
From Burns Lake, a hospital is 0.8 km away on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Burns Lake’s own, not the region’s.
Hospital
0.8 km
residents’ average distance
the typical Canadian town: 3.7 km
Clinic
112 km
community health centre or clinic, residents’ average
Pharmacy
1.0 km
residents’ average distance
1.0 within 3 km of a typical home
More than 30 km from a hospital
0%
share of residents
Emergency
911
police, fire, ambulance; 811 for health advice in most provinces
Burns Lake is closer in than the provincial norm of 4.4 km in British Columbia, and than the typical Canadian town at 3.7 km.
The neighbours all sit in Burns Lake’s health region, which is why their regional columns are identical. Electoral Area B, Bulkley-Nechako is the furthest from care, 12 km to Burns Lake’s 0.8 km.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
•
Adjusted for age. Because older people report more illness, the grade uses age-standardised shares; the charts above show the unadjusted answers.
•
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.
•
Who the survey asks. People on reserves and in institutions, full-time military members and the residents of Nunavik and Eeyou Istchee aren’t interviewed by the survey.
•
Regional figures. Only the distances on this page belong to Burns Lake alone, because the health survey and life expectancy come for the whole health region.
•
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 Burns Lake
How healthy is Burns Lake?
All four of the region’s figures sit on the less healthy side of the typical Canadian town’s. The three chronic conditions the grade counts average 20% of adults.
What is the life expectancy in Burns Lake?
Statistics Canada publishes it for Burns Lake’s health region only: 79.5 years for women and 74.0 for men (2022/2024).
How is Burns Lake’s Health Grade worked out?
Not so far; the grade arrives with Canada’s grading run and will set the region’s figures, plus Burns Lake’s own distance to care, against the typical Canadian town.
How far is Burns Lake from a hospital?
In a straight line from where people in Burns Lake live: 112 km to a clinic, 1.0 km to a pharmacy.
Photo: Britcruise · CC BY-SA 3.0