Health in Musquash · CCHS 2023/2024, Statistics Canada
On health, Musquash falls short of 89% of Canadian towns
In the health survey, 43% of adults in the region rate their health very good or excellent, close to New Brunswick’s 44%. Closer to home, a hospital is 22 km from the average resident of Musquash, further than the usual 3.7 km. Musquash grades D for health.
Distance is Musquash’s own health question: 0% of residents live beyond 30 km of a hospital, and the trip from its centre is 23 km. Getting care ↓
Shorter lives in the region
Born around Musquash, a child can expect 2.2 fewer years than in the typical Canadian town’s region; at 65, another 19.1 (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
Self-rated health runs low
Even once age is allowed for, 8.4 points fewer adults here call their health very good or excellent than in the typical town’s region (42% as answered). Health survey ↓
More chronic illness
For its ages, the region carries more long-term illness than most: high blood pressure for 31% of adults, diabetes for 8.5%. Conditions and habits ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Health Grade
Musquash grades D for health
Each input ranked against Canadian towns of 2,500 or more: the region’s four, the town’s distance to a hospital.
Very good or excellent health (43%)Better than 8% of Canadian towns
Chronic conditions (21%)Better than 8% of Canadian towns
Smokers (13%)Better than 51% of Canadian towns
Life expectancy (79.3)Better than 31% of Canadian towns
Distance to a hospital (22 km)Better than 20% of Canadian towns
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.
Getting care
From Musquash, a hospital is 22 km away on average
Straight-line distances from each part of Musquash, weighted by who lives there.
Hospital
22 km
residents’ average distance
the typical Canadian town: 3.7 km
Clinic
94 km
community health centre or clinic, residents’ average
Pharmacy
21 km
residents’ average distance
0.0 within 3 km of a typical home
More than 30 km from a hospital
0%
share of residents
Emergency
911
police, fire, ambulance; 811 for health advice in most provinces
Musquash is further out than the provincial norm of 11 km in New Brunswick, and than the typical Canadian town at 3.7 km. The clinic list is thin in New Brunswick: the facilities database holds few clinics there, so the clinic distance overstates the trip.
Life expectancy across the 7 health regions in New Brunswick
What Statistics Canada publishes above the town: life expectancy for each health region in New Brunswick, and the deprivation index for the town’s own areas.
79.3
years at birth, 2022/2024
19.1
more years expected at 65
4th
longest of 7 regions in New Brunswick
Life expectancy at birth by health region · 2022/2024
Zone 1 (Moncton area)81.5
Zone 6 (Bathurst area)80.2
Zone 3 (Fredericton area)80.1
Zone 2 (Saint John area)79.3
Zone 4 (Edmundston area)79.1
Zone 5 (Campbellton area)79.0
Zone 7 (Miramichi area)78.9
Among the 7 regions in New Brunswick, from 78.9 to 81.5 years, this one is 4th.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
Residential instability2.0
Economic dependency3.5
Ethno-cultural composition1.0
Situational vulnerability3.5
Statistics Canada scores every small area from 1 to 5 on each dimension; Musquash’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.
Health survey
42% in the region call their health very good or excellent, close to New Brunswick (43%)
The survey’s answers for the region as given, each beside the province’s (the tick).
Share of adults, as answered · 2023/2024
Health very good or excellent
42%
Health fair or poor
22%
Mental health very good or excellent
50%
Mental health fair or poor
19%
Most days quite a bit stressful
22%
Strong sense of belonging
65%
Satisfied with life
84%
New Brunswick
Mental health is close to the province’s: 50% rate it very good or excellent, against 49% in New Brunswick, 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.
Conditions and habits
In the region, high blood pressure (31%) and diabetes (8.5%)
Long-term conditions and habits as the region’s adults reported them; the tick marks the province.
Conditions and weight · 2023/2024
High blood pressure
31%
Arthritis
29%
Diabetes
8.5%
Obese (self-reported)
45%
Mood disorder
16%
Anxiety disorder
17%
Habits · 2023/2024
Smoke daily or now and then
13%
Smoke every day
11%
Heavy drinking
22%
New Brunswick
Self-reported obesity, 45%, sits within a few points of New Brunswick (42%).
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.
For its deprivation
Deprivation predicts more: the region falls 1.1 years 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 Musquash’s region, below the line, stands for every town in it.
Situational vulnerability: residents’ average quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprivedLife expectancy at birth (years)
Deprivation accounts for much of the spread between regions (correlation −0.83 over 102), but not for all of Musquash’s region’s: 79.3 years where the line expects 80.4 at 3.1. Most of the 10 regions with the nearest deprivation scores outlive it (9 of 10, median 80.9 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.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
•
Adjusted for age. The grade’s three survey shares are age-standardised to Canada’s adults, so an older region isn’t marked down for age alone, while the survey charts show answers as given.
•
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.
•
Who the survey asks. The survey’s frame skips reserves and other Indigenous settlements, institutions, the Forces and two Québec regions, so their figures come from elsewhere or not at all.
•
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.
•
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.
•
Regional figures. Statistics Canada reports the survey and life expectancy by health region, not by town: Musquash shares them with its neighbours, while the distances are measured for it alone.
Questions about health in Musquash
How far is Musquash from a hospital?
Beyond the hospital, the average home in Musquash is 21 km from a pharmacy; clinics are too sparsely listed in the province to say.
How healthy is Musquash?
Self-rated health, chronic conditions, smoking and life expectancy all come out behind the typical Canadian town. The three chronic conditions the grade counts average 21% of adults.
What is the life expectancy in Musquash?
For the health region that includes Musquash, women can expect 81.1 years and men 77.3 (2022/2024).
How is Musquash’s Health Grade worked out?
No letter yet for Musquash: Canada is graded in one run, and Health will then compare its region and its access to care with the typical Canadian town.
Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0