Photo: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit , Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center · Public domainFor health, Welcome Beach is ahead of almost every Canadian town
Across the region, 59% of adults say their health is very good or excellent; British Columbia as a whole manages 50%. The town’s own part is the trip to care, and Welcome Beach’s is long: 11 km to a hospital on average, against 3.7 km typical. Health gives Welcome Beach a grade of A+, #8 of 254 in British Columbia and #51 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Welcome Beach
Fewer smokers
Around Welcome Beach, only 3.7% of adults smoke daily, part of a smoking rate lower than most Canadian towns’ regions. Conditions and habits ↓
Life expectancy above the norm
Welcome Beach’s region sits 2.8 years above the typical Canadian town, and those reaching 65 have 22.6 years ahead (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
A lighter load of illness
High blood pressure (16%) and diabetes (4%) keep the region’s chronic-condition figure below the typical Canadian town’s. Conditions and habits ↓
Upbeat about their health
The survey’s age-standardised figure sits 7.6 points over the typical Canadian town’s, and 59% answered very good or excellent. Health survey ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Welcome Beach grades A+ 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: #8 of 254 in British Columbia and #51 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.
In the region, high blood pressure (16%) and diabetes (4%)
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 23%, self-reported obesity is near British Columbia’s 25%. Heavy drinking is commoner too (23% 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.
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
This region is 3rd longest-lived of 16 in British Columbia, on a scale from 76.6 to 86.8 years.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
Statistics Canada scores every small area from 1 to 5 on each dimension; Welcome Beach’s bars are its residents’ average, shown and not graded.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
More people rate their health highly here than in British Columbia: 59% 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
More adults here report very good or excellent mental health than across British Columbia (55% against 49%), while 22% call most days stressful.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
The region lives 1.4 years less than its deprivation predicts
One dot per health region, 102 in all, since life expectancy and the index are published for regions; Welcome Beach’s dot is marked, under the line.
Set against 102 regions on the deprivation index (correlation −0.83), the region Welcome Beach belongs to lives less long than its score of 1.7 predicts: 84.3 years, where the trend gives 85.7. Set beside its 10 nearest neighbours on the index, it outlives the majority, 6 of 10; their median is 83.5 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.
From Welcome Beach, a hospital is 11 km away on average
Straight-line distances from each part of Welcome Beach, weighted by who lives there.
Welcome Beach is further out 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.
Welcome Beach is 24th of 40 towns its size for nearness to a hospital
The 40 Canadian towns nearest its population (3,078 to 3,181 people), nearest a hospital first; their median is 7.4 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Blakeley ON B+ | 3,151 | 0.4 km | 53% |
| 2 | Ainslie Wood East ON B | 3,112 | 0.9 km | 53% |
| 3 | La Loche SK | 3,124 | 1.0 km | – |
| 22 | French River / Rivière des Français ON C | 3,178 | 8.2 km | 51% |
| 23 | Mont-Saint-Grégoire QC A | 3,158 | 8.9 km | 55% |
| 24 | Welcome Beach BC A+ | 3,130 | 11 km | 59% |
| 25 | Minburn County No. 27 AB C | 3,142 | 13 km | 52% |
| 26 | Admaston/Bromley ON C | 3,086 | 14 km | 50% |
| 40 | Houston BC D− | 3,114 | 54 km | 42% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Welcome Beach
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Welcome Beach | 11 km | 59% | 84.3 | A+ |
| Sechelt 11 km | 3.0 km | 59% | 84.3 | A+ |
| Electoral Area A, Sunshine Coast 16 km | 27 km | 59% | 84.3 | A |
The table’s survey and life-expectancy columns are one region’s, Welcome Beach’s; read across for the hospital trip. Residents of Electoral Area A, Sunshine Coast live further from a hospital, at 27 km against 11 km in Welcome Beach.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Deprivation is context. None of the four deprivation scores enters the grade; they come from the 2021 index, which skips the territories.
- Regional figures. Statistics Canada reports the survey and life expectancy by health region, not by town: Welcome Beach shares them with its neighbours, while the distances are measured for it alone.
- 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. A straight line from each neighbourhood’s centre to the nearest facility, weighted by who lives there, is shorter than any drive.
- 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.
- 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.
Questions about health in Welcome Beach
How healthy is Welcome Beach?
Self-rated health, chronic conditions, smoking and life expectancy all come out ahead of the typical Canadian town. Chronic conditions there average 12% across arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure.
What is the life expectancy in Welcome Beach?
There is no figure for Welcome Beach alone; its health region’s is 86.3 for women and 82.3 for men in 2022/2024.
How far is Welcome Beach from a hospital?
Residents of Welcome Beach have a clinic 28 km away on average and a pharmacy 9.8 km away, in straight lines.
How is Welcome Beach’s Health Grade worked out?
No letter yet for Welcome Beach: Canada is graded in one run, and Health will then compare its region and its access to care with 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).