Photo: Mykola Swarnyk · CC BY-SA 4.0Very good or excellent health for just 45% of adults around Plaster Rock; the typical Canadian town: 52%
Life expectancy in the region is 80.1 years (81.9 for women, 78.2 for men, 2022/2024). What sets Plaster Rock apart within its region is a short trip to hospital, 1.8 km for the average resident (3.7 km typical). Health gives Plaster Rock a grade of C+.
What stands out about health in Plaster Rock
A region that smokes more
Around Plaster Rock, 11% of adults smoke daily, part of a smoking rate higher than most Canadian towns’ regions. Conditions and habits ↓
Shorter lives in the region
Life expectancy in the region around Plaster Rock runs 1.4 years behind the typical Canadian town’s, and at 65 people can expect 19.6 more years (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
Deprivation runs high
On the index’s situational vulnerability, which follows housing, income and education, Plaster Rock’s neighbourhoods average 4.0 out of 5, among the most deprived fifth of the country. The wider area ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Plaster Rock 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.
In the region, high blood pressure (23%) and diabetes (9.4%)
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, 39%, trails 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.
Longest and shortest lives among the 7 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
Among the 7 regions in New Brunswick, from 78.9 to 81.5 years, this one is 3rd.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
The index is context and never graded: it describes Plaster Rock’s own areas, averaged over residents, on each of its four dimensions.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
The region lives 1.0 years less than its deprivation predicts
102 dots, 102 health regions: no town has its own life expectancy here, and Plaster Rock’s region shows under the trend.
Set against 102 regions on the deprivation index (correlation −0.83), the region Plaster Rock belongs to lives less long than its score of 2.9 predicts: 80.1 years, where the trend gives 81.1. Even beside regions as deprived, it lags: 9 of its 10 closest matches reach further, their median 81.2 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.
Getting to hospital from Plaster Rock: 1.8 km on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Plaster Rock’s own, not the region’s.
Residents of Plaster Rock are closer than most of the province: the typical town in New Brunswick is 11 km from a hospital, the typical Canadian town 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.
Self-rated health much as in New Brunswick: 44% to 43%
The survey’s answers for the region as given, each beside the province’s (the tick).
Share of adults, as answered · 2023/2024
Fewer adults here report very good or excellent mental health than across New Brunswick (45% against 49%), while 26% call most days stressful.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Health in the places around Plaster Rock
The places around, with the distance to a hospital and their regions’ figures. Tap a town for its health page.
The neighbours all sit in Plaster Rock’s health region, which is why their regional columns are identical. Residents of Denmark live further from a hospital, at 16 km against 1.8 km in Plaster Rock.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- What counts as a hospital. The facilities database merges provincial lists of different vintages; its hospitals include some with no emergency department, and a few are placed by postal code.
- Regional figures. Statistics Canada reports the survey and life expectancy by health region, not by town: Plaster Rock shares them with its neighbours, while the distances are measured for it alone.
- Distances are straight lines. They run from where residents live, not along roads, so they understate a drive; each dissemination area counts by its 2021 population.
- 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.
- 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.
- Deprivation is context. Statistics Canada’s 2021 deprivation index describes the town’s own areas for context only, with no index for the territories.
Questions about health in Plaster Rock
How healthy is Plaster Rock?
The region trails the typical Canadian town on each of its four survey and life-expectancy figures. Chronic conditions there average 18% across arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure.
What is the life expectancy in Plaster Rock?
Life expectancy comes by health region: 81.9 for women, 78.2 for men around Plaster Rock (2022/2024).
How is Plaster Rock’s Health Grade worked out?
No letter yet for Plaster Rock: Canada is graded in one run, and Health will then compare its region and its access to care with the typical Canadian town.
How far is Plaster Rock from a hospital?
Beyond the hospital, the average home in Plaster Rock is 0.6 km from a pharmacy; clinics are too sparsely listed in the province to say.
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).