Photo: railfan 44 · Public domainLives run shorter around Fort St. James: 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. The town’s own part is the trip to care, and Fort St. James is well placed: 1.1 km to a hospital on average, against 3.7 km typical. Health gives Fort St. James a grade of C.
What stands out about health in Fort St. James
Self-rated health runs low
Even once age is allowed for, 12.4 points fewer adults here call their health very good or excellent than in the typical town’s region (39% as answered). Health survey ↓
Fewer years than its deprivation would give
At 76.6 years, Fort St. James’ region trails the 78.3 that regions scoring 3.7 on the index typically reach. For its deprivation ↓
A long way to a pharmacy
Picking up a prescription in Fort St. James takes a trip of 58 km on average to the nearest mapped pharmacy. Getting care ↓
Long-term conditions run high
Arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure are commoner here than in the typical town’s region, even for its ages: 26% report high blood pressure and 10% diabetes. Conditions and habits ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Fort St. James 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.
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.
Fewer people rate their health highly here than in British Columbia: 39% to 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
Mental health looks weaker than in the province: 40% rate it very good or excellent, against 49% in British Columbia, and 28% find most days quite stressful.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Shorter lives than deprivation would give: 1.7 years behind the trend
Regions, not towns, with every town in a region sharing its dot: of the 102, the marked one, Fort St. James’, lies beneath the trend.
Where residents average 3.7 on the index, regions tend to reach 78.3 years (correlation −0.83, 102 regions); the one Fort St. James belongs to trails at 76.6. 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.
The nearest hospital is 1.1 km from the average home in Fort St. James
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Fort St. James’ own, not the region’s.
Fort St. James is closer in than the provincial norm of 4.4 km in British Columbia, and than the typical Canadian town at 3.7 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.
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
At 41%, self-reported obesity is above British Columbia’s 25%. Heavy drinking is commoner too (22% against 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.
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.
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
Context only: each bar is the residents’ average quintile on one dimension of Statistics Canada’s index, for Fort St. James’ own areas.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
Health in the places around Fort St. James
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fort St. James | 1.1 km | 39% | 76.6 | C |
| Electoral Area C, Bulkley-Nechako 5.4 km | 16 km | 39% | 76.6 | D |
One health region covers Fort St. James and every place in the table, so the survey and life-expectancy columns read the same. Residents of Electoral Area C, Bulkley-Nechako live further from a hospital, at 16 km against 1.1 km in Fort St. James.
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.
- Deprivation is context. The Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation (2021) is context, never graded, and the territories have none.
- What counts as a hospital. Facility locations come from Statistics Canada’s open database; records without coordinates sit at their postal code, and not every hospital has an emergency room.
- Distances are straight lines. Each small census area is measured as the crow flies to the nearest facility and weighted by its 2021 residents, so real trips run longer.
- Regional figures. Statistics Canada reports the survey and life expectancy by health region, not by town: Fort St. James shares them with its neighbours, while the distances are measured for it alone.
- 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.
Questions about health in Fort St. James
How healthy is Fort St. James?
The region trails the typical Canadian town on each of its four survey and life-expectancy figures. The three chronic conditions the grade counts average 20% of adults.
What is the life expectancy in Fort St. James?
There is no figure for Fort St. James alone; its health region’s is 79.5 for women and 74.0 for men in 2022/2024.
How far is Fort St. James from a hospital?
A clinic is 57 km from the average resident of Fort St. James and a pharmacy 58 km, as the crow flies.
How is Fort St. James’ Health Grade worked out?
Not yet: Health will weigh the region’s survey and life expectancy and Fort St. James’ 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).