Photo: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit , Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center · Public domainOnly 43% of adults around Saint Mary call their health very good or excellent, below the typical Canadian town’s 52%
For 2022/2024, the region’s figure is 81.5 years at birth, 83.5 for women and 79.5 for men. For Saint Mary itself the measure is access, and it lags: 18 km to the nearest hospital, where 3.7 km is typical. Saint Mary grades C for health.
What stands out about health in Saint Mary
Far from a hospital
Residents of Saint Mary live much further from a hospital than in the typical Canadian town (17 km from its centre of population), and 0% are more than 30 km away. Getting care ↓
Harder circumstances
With a situational-vulnerability score of 4.2 out of 5, Saint Mary 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.
Saint Mary 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 Saint Mary, a hospital is 18 km away on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Saint Mary’s own, not the region’s.
Residents of Saint Mary travel further than most of the province: the typical town in New Brunswick is 11 km from a hospital, the typical Canadian town 3.7 km. Few clinics are listed in New Brunswick, so the distance to one reads longer than it is.
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.
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
Top of the 7 regions in New Brunswick: the lowest figure is 78.9, 2.6 years below the highest.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
Higher means more deprived: the bars average the quintiles of the areas Saint Mary’s residents live in, and none of them counts toward Health.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
As long-lived as regions this deprived, if slightly longer
Every town shares its health region’s figures, so this compares 102 regions; the one holding Saint Mary’s lies near the line.
The line through 102 regions (correlation −0.83) gives a score of 2.9 about 81.3 years; Saint Mary’s region’s 81.5 is within a year of it. Most of the 10 regions with the nearest deprivation scores fall short of it (8 of 10, median 80.9 years). Lower incomes, longer lives: about $73,000 a household, under most regions’, with a life expectancy above most; income and lifespan correlate at only 0.14 across regions.
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.
25% of the region’s adults have high blood pressure and 10% 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 43%, 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.
About as many rate their health highly here as in New Brunswick: 42% and 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 trails New Brunswick: 47% very good or excellent to 49%, with 25% facing stressful days.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Health in the places around Saint Mary
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint Mary | 18 km | 43% | 81.5 | C |
| Saint-Antoine 9.1 km | 22 km | 43% | 81.5 | C |
| Bouctouche 11 km | 11 km | 43% | 81.5 | C+ |
| Wellington 14 km | 11 km | 43% | 81.5 | C+ |
| Cocagne 17 km | 24 km | 43% | 81.5 | C |
The neighbours all sit in Saint Mary’s health region, which is why their regional columns are identical.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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.
- Deprivation is context. None of the four deprivation scores enters the grade; they come from the 2021 index, which skips the territories.
- 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.
- Regional figures. Statistics Canada reports the survey and life expectancy by health region, not by town: Saint Mary shares them with its neighbours, while the distances are measured for it alone.
- 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. 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.
Questions about health in Saint Mary
How healthy is Saint Mary?
The region trails the typical Canadian town on each of its four survey and life-expectancy figures. The three chronic conditions the grade counts average 18% of adults.
How far is Saint Mary from a hospital?
Beyond the hospital, the average home in Saint Mary is 8.5 km from a pharmacy; clinics are too sparsely listed in the province to say.
How is Saint Mary’s Health Grade worked out?
Not yet: Health will weigh the region’s survey and life expectancy and Saint Mary’s distance to a hospital against the typical Canadian town once Canada’s grading run happens.
What is the life expectancy in Saint Mary?
Life expectancy comes by health region: 83.5 for women, 79.5 for men around Saint Mary (2022/2024).
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).