Photo: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA Johnson Space Center · Public domainGilbert Plains’ region trails the typical Canadian town by 2.7 years: life expectancy 78.8
About as many adults call their health very good or excellent here as across Manitoba, 51% against 51%. The town’s own part is the trip to care, and Gilbert Plains’ is long: 17 km to a hospital on average, against 3.7 km typical. The Health grade for Gilbert Plains is C.
What stands out about health in Gilbert Plains
Far from a hospital
Residents of Gilbert Plains live much further from a hospital than in the typical Canadian town (15 km from its centre of population), and 0% are more than 30 km away. Getting care ↓
More smokers
Around Gilbert Plains, 10% of adults smoke daily, part of a smoking rate higher than most Canadian towns’ regions. Conditions and habits ↓
A long way to a pharmacy
The nearest pharmacy on OpenStreetMap is 29 km from the average home in Gilbert Plains, so prescriptions mean a drive. Getting care ↓
Deprivation runs high
With a situational-vulnerability score of 4.3 out of 5, Gilbert Plains 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.
Gilbert Plains 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.
From Gilbert Plains, a hospital is 17 km away on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Gilbert Plains’ own, not the region’s.
Gilbert Plains is further out than the provincial norm of 3.1 km in Manitoba, and than the typical Canadian town at 3.7 km. The clinic list is thin in Manitoba: the facilities database holds few clinics there, so the clinic distance overstates the trip.
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.
24% of the region’s adults have high blood pressure and 7.9% 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 40%, self-reported obesity is above Manitoba’s 36%. Heavy drinking is commoner too (24% against 21%).
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (table 13-10-0972), as published, not adjusted for age; obesity from reported height and weight.
How the 5 health regions in Manitoba compare on life expectancy
Regional life expectancy in Manitoba, then the town’s place on the national deprivation index.
Life expectancy at birth by health region · 2022/2024
Among the 5 regions in Manitoba, from 68.5 to 80.7 years, this one is 3rd.
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 Gilbert Plains’ own areas.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
Life expectancy close to where deprivation puts it, a shade under
These are health regions, 102 of them, not towns: the survey and life expectancy are published that way, so the dot for Gilbert Plains’ region, on the line, stands for every town in it.
Deprivation explains most of the gap between regions (correlation −0.83 over 102), and Gilbert Plains’ region is a typical case: 78.8 years at a score of 3.5, where the trend says 79.0. Among its 10 nearest neighbours on the index it sits mid-table: 5 above, 5 below, a median of 78.9 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.
Self-rated health much as in Manitoba: 51% to 52%
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 better than in the province too: 54% rate it very good or excellent, against 52% in Manitoba, and 20% find most days quite stressful.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Health in the places around Gilbert Plains
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gilbert Plains | 17 km | 51% | 78.8 | C |
| Grandview 15 km | 3.5 km | 51% | 78.8 | C+ |
The neighbours all sit in Gilbert Plains’ health region, which is why their regional columns are identical. Grandview is the closest to care, 3.5 km to Gilbert Plains’ 17 km.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Distances are straight lines. Roads, rivers and ferries aren’t in it: the figure is a straight line from where people live, averaged over residents.
- What counts as a hospital. A “hospital” here is whatever the provinces listed as one in Statistics Canada’s database, which can mean a site without an emergency department.
- 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. Deprivation is shown to set the scene and doesn’t count toward the grade; Statistics Canada left the territories out of the index.
- Regional figures. Statistics Canada reports the survey and life expectancy by health region, not by town: Gilbert Plains shares them with its neighbours, while the distances are measured for it alone.
- 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.
Questions about health in Gilbert Plains
How is Gilbert Plains’ 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 Gilbert Plains’ homes are from a hospital, against the typical Canadian town.
How far is Gilbert Plains from a hospital?
Beyond the hospital, the average home in Gilbert Plains is 29 km from a pharmacy; clinics are too sparsely listed in the province to say.
What is the life expectancy in Gilbert Plains?
There is no figure for Gilbert Plains alone; its health region’s is 81.2 for women and 76.6 for men in 2022/2024.
How healthy is Gilbert Plains?
Self-rated health, chronic conditions, smoking and life expectancy all come out behind the typical Canadian town. Chronic conditions there average 18% across arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure.
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).