Photo: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit , Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center · Public domainNelson scores below 94% of Canadian towns for health
Adults here are more upbeat about their health than the province: 47% very good or excellent, against 44% in New Brunswick. For Nelson itself the measure is access, and it lags: 15 km to the nearest hospital, where 3.7 km is typical. Nelson grades D for health.
What stands out about health in Nelson
Smoking runs high
The age-standardised smoking rate around Nelson is well above the typical town’s; 19% of adults are daily smokers. Conditions and habits ↓
Shorter lives in the region
Life expectancy in the region around Nelson runs 2.6 years behind the typical Canadian town’s, and at 65 people can expect 19.8 more years (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
Long-term conditions run high
High blood pressure (29%) and diabetes (17%) push the region’s chronic-condition figure above the typical Canadian town’s. Conditions and habits ↓
Far from a hospital
For 0% of homes in Nelson the nearest hospital is over 30 km off; from the town’s centre of population it is 17 km. Getting care ↓
From Statistics Canada: the health survey and life expectancy for the health region, the deprivation index for the town; distances from the healthcare facilities database and OpenStreetMap.
Nelson 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.
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.
In the region, high blood pressure (29%) and diabetes (17%)
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 44%, self-reported obesity is near New Brunswick’s 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. Statistics Canada flags heavy drinking “use with caution”.
Life expectancy across the 7 health regions in New Brunswick
Regional life expectancy in New Brunswick, 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 7 regions in New Brunswick, 2.6 years behind the first at 81.5.
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 Nelson’s own areas.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
Getting to hospital from Nelson: 15 km on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Nelson’s own, not the region’s.
Nelson 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.
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.
The region lives 1.3 years longer than its deprivation predicts
These are health regions, 102 of them, not towns: the survey and life expectancy are published that way, so the dot for Nelson’s region, above the line, stands for every town in it.
At 3.9 on the index, the trend across 102 regions (correlation −0.83) points to 77.6 years, and the region Nelson belongs to reaches 78.9. Narrow the field to the 10 regions most like it on deprivation and it still beats 7, with 78.3 years in the middle.
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 New Brunswick: 46% to 43%
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 is close to the province’s: 47% rate it very good or excellent, against 49% in New Brunswick, and 17% 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 Nelson
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nelson | 15 km | 47% | 78.9 | D |
| Southesk 11 km | 25 km | 47% | 78.9 | D− |
| Northesk 15 km | 18 km | 47% | 78.9 | D− |
| Blackville 15 km | 35 km | 47% | 78.9 | D− |
| Rogersville 18 km | 28 km | 43% | 81.5 | C |
Not every neighbour shares the region: Rogersville’s life expectancy is 81.5, this region’s 78.9. Residents of Blackville live further from a hospital, at 35 km against 15 km in Nelson.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Deprivation is context. The Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation (2021) is context, never graded, and the territories have none.
- 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.
- Regional figures. Every place in the health region carries the same survey and life-expectancy figures; what is measured for Nelson itself is the trip to care.
- Adjusted for age. Standardising for age lets a retirement region and a young one be set side by side; the charts keep the raw answers, the grade the standardised ones.
- 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.
- 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.
Questions about health in Nelson
What is the life expectancy in Nelson?
Statistics Canada publishes it for Nelson’s health region only: 82.0 years for women and 75.7 for men (2022/2024).
How far is Nelson from a hospital?
Residents of Nelson have a pharmacy 13 km away on average, in a straight line.
How healthy is Nelson?
All four of the region’s figures sit on the less healthy side of the typical Canadian town’s. Its chronic-condition figure, age-standardised, is 21%.
How is Nelson’s 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 Nelson’s homes are from a hospital, 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).