Photo: Sam Beebe · CC BY 2.0Lives run shorter around Prince Rupert: 77.0 years, 4.5 below the typical Canadian town’s region
In the health survey, 42% of adults in the region rate their health very good or excellent, fewer than British Columbia’s 50%. For Prince Rupert itself the measure is access, and it scores well: 1.8 km to the nearest hospital, where 3.7 km is typical. Health gives Prince Rupert a grade of C−, #242 of 254 in British Columbia and #2,436 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Prince Rupert
Less upbeat about their health
Adjusted for age, the region’s share in very good or excellent health is 9.8 points below the typical Canadian town’s; as answered, it is 42%. Health survey ↓
More chronic illness
For its ages, the region carries more long-term illness than most: high blood pressure for 22% of adults, diabetes for 10%. Conditions and habits ↓
Deprivation runs high
With a situational-vulnerability score of 4.7 out of 5, Prince Rupert sits in the index’s harder-pressed areas. The wider area ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Prince Rupert 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. Its place: #242 of 254 in British Columbia and #2,436 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.
Self-rated health trails British Columbia: 42% 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
Mental health looks weaker than in the province: 44% rate it very good or excellent, against 49% in British Columbia, and 22% find most days quite stressful.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
22% of the region’s adults have high blood pressure and 10% 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, 45%, tops British Columbia (25%). More adults drink heavily, 26% 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.
How the 16 health regions in British Columbia compare on life expectancy
What Statistics Canada publishes above the town: life expectancy for each health region in British Columbia, and the deprivation index for the town’s own areas.
Life expectancy at birth by health region · 2022/2024
Ranked 14th 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
These four scores average the national quintile of the areas where Prince Rupert’s residents live; they carry no weight in the grade.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
Deprivation all but predicts the region’s life expectancy, which falls just short of the trend
These are health regions, 102 of them, not towns: the survey and life expectancy are published that way, so the dot for Prince Rupert’s region, on the line, stands for every town in it.
At 3.9 on the index, regions tend to reach 77.6 years (correlation −0.83, 102 regions), and the one Prince Rupert belongs to reaches 77.0. It is outlived by 8 of the 10 regions nearest it on the index, whose median is 78.7 years. A household income of about $92,000, high for a region, doesn’t come with longer lives here; across regions the two barely move together (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.
Getting to hospital from Prince Rupert: 1.8 km on average
Straight-line distances from each part of Prince Rupert, weighted by who lives there.
Prince Rupert 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.
Prince Rupert is 14th of 40 towns its size for nearness to a hospital
The 40 Canadian towns nearest its population (12,639 to 13,177 people), nearest a hospital first; their median is 2.5 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yonge-Bay Corridor ON A | 12,888 | 0.3 km | 50% |
| 2 | Regent Park ON A | 12,797 | 0.7 km | 50% |
| 3 | Downtown AB B+ | 12,880 | 0.9 km | 51% |
| 12 | Westboro ON A+ | 12,899 | 1.7 km | 56% |
| 13 | Gander NL C+ | 12,707 | 1.8 km | 54% |
| 14 | Prince Rupert BC C− | 12,903 | 1.8 km | 42% |
| 15 | Peel Village ON A− | 13,037 | 1.8 km | 49% |
| 16 | Centre-Nord (Montréal-Nord) QC A | 13,131 | 1.9 km | 54% |
| 40 | Lac Ste. Anne County AB D− | 12,639 | 25 km | 48% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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.
- Deprivation is context. The Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation (2021) is context, never graded, and the territories have none.
- Adjusted for age. Self-rated health, chronic conditions and smoking enter the grade adjusted to Canada’s adult age mix, though the survey block prints them as people answered.
- Who the survey asks. The health survey leaves out people living on reserves, full-time Canadian Forces members, people in institutions, and Nunavik and the Cree lands of James Bay.
- 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: Prince Rupert shares them with its neighbours, while the distances are measured for it alone.
Questions about health in Prince Rupert
What is the life expectancy in Prince Rupert?
For the health region that includes Prince Rupert, women can expect 79.2 years and men 75.0 (2022/2024).
How healthy is Prince Rupert?
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 21% of adults.
How far is Prince Rupert from a hospital?
Beyond the hospital, the average home in Prince Rupert is 155 km from a clinic and 1.3 km from a pharmacy.
How is Prince Rupert’s Health Grade worked out?
Not so far; the grade arrives with Canada’s grading run and will set the region’s figures, plus Prince Rupert’s own distance to care, 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).