Photo: Holger Steinhaus · CC BY-SA 3.0Very good or excellent health for 57% of adults around Fernie; the typical Canadian town: 52%
Life expectancy in the region is 80.5 years (82.7 for women, 78.1 for men, 2022/2024). The town’s own part is the trip to care, and Fernie is well placed: 1.5 km to a hospital on average, against 3.7 km typical. Health gives Fernie a grade of B+, #139 of 254 in British Columbia and #1,258 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Fernie
A region where lives run shorter
Fernie’s region sits 1.0 years below the typical Canadian town, and those reaching 65 have 20.3 years ahead (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
A hospital close by
The hospital is close for almost everyone in Fernie: 1.3 km from its centre of population. Getting care ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Fernie grades B+ 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: #139 of 254 in British Columbia and #1,258 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.
Longest and shortest lives among the 16 regions in British Columbia
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
Ranked 8th of 16 in British Columbia: the regions span 76.6 to 86.8 years at birth.
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 Fernie’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.
From Fernie, a hospital is 1.5 km away on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Fernie’s own, not the region’s.
From Fernie that is nearer than the 4.4 km of the typical town in British Columbia, and the 3.7 km of the typical Canadian town.
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.
The region lives 1.3 years less than its deprivation predicts
Plotted region by region (102 in all, since towns have no figures of their own), Fernie’s region comes out below the trend.
Shorter lives come with deeper deprivation across the 102 regions (correlation −0.83). Even allowing for its score of 2.7, Fernie’s region’s 80.5 years sit under the line’s 81.8. Even beside regions as deprived, it lags: 8 of its 10 closest matches reach further, their median 81.4 years.
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.
20% of the region’s adults have high blood pressure and 7.2% 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
Self-reported obesity, 29%, tops British Columbia (25%). More adults drink heavily, 23% 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.
More people rate their health highly here than in British Columbia: 56% 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
More adults here report very good or excellent mental health than across British Columbia (56% against 49%), while 16% call most days stressful.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Fernie is 9th of 40 towns its size for nearness to a hospital
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 6,965 to 7,245 people, median 4.0 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Raleigh ON B | 7,113 | 0.9 km | 53% |
| 2 | Perth ON B | 6,972 | 1.0 km | 51% |
| 3 | Devon AB B+ | 6,965 | 1.0 km | 51% |
| 7 | Wainwright AB C+ | 6,996 | 1.3 km | 52% |
| 8 | Midnapore AB A+ | 7,022 | 1.4 km | 56% |
| 9 | Fernie BC B+ | 7,086 | 1.5 km | 57% |
| 10 | Merritt BC C+ | 7,190 | 1.7 km | 48% |
| 11 | Sherbrooke AB B+ | 7,131 | 1.7 km | 51% |
| 40 | Algoma, Unorganized, North Part ON D− | 7,008 | 25 km | 46% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Fernie
The places around, with the distance to a hospital and their regions’ figures. Tap a town for its health page.
| Town | Hospital | Very good health | Life exp. | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fernie | 1.5 km | 57% | 80.5 | B+ |
| Electoral Area A, East Kootenay 11 km | 11 km | 57% | 80.5 | B |
Around Fernie the health region doesn’t change, so the only column that moves is the distance to a hospital. Electoral Area A, East Kootenay is the furthest from care, 11 km to Fernie’s 1.5 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.
- Deprivation is context. None of the four deprivation scores enters the grade; they come from the 2021 index, which skips the territories.
- What counts as a hospital. Hospitals and clinics come from Statistics Canada’s facilities database, built from provincial lists of different dates, and a listed hospital may have no emergency department.
- 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.
- Regional figures. Statistics Canada reports the survey and life expectancy by health region, not by town: Fernie shares them with its neighbours, while the distances are measured for it alone.
- Distances are straight lines. A straight line from each neighbourhood’s centre to the nearest facility, weighted by who lives there, is shorter than any drive.
Questions about health in Fernie
How healthy is Fernie?
Taken together the region leans healthier than the typical Canadian town, but the picture is mixed. The three chronic conditions the grade counts average 16% of adults.
What is the life expectancy in Fernie?
For the health region that includes Fernie, women can expect 82.7 years and men 78.1 (2022/2024).
How far is Fernie from a hospital?
A clinic is 159 km from the average resident of Fernie and a pharmacy 1.1 km, as the crow flies.
How is Fernie’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 Fernie’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).