Saint Stephen’s health region reports 43% in very good or excellent health, behind the typical Canadian town’s 52%
Women in the region live to 81.1 and men to 77.3, 79.3 years taken together (2022/2024). What sets Saint Stephen apart within its region is a longer trip to hospital, 5.2 km for the average resident (3.7 km typical). The Health grade for Saint Stephen is C.
What stands out about health in Saint Stephen
A region where lives run shorter
Life expectancy in the region around Saint Stephen runs 2.2 years behind the typical Canadian town’s, and at 65 people can expect 19.1 more years (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
A heavier load of illness
Arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure are commoner here than in the typical town’s region, even for its ages: 31% report high blood pressure and 8.5% diabetes. Conditions and habits ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Saint Stephen 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.
How the 7 health regions in New Brunswick compare on life expectancy
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
Ranked 4th of 7 in New Brunswick: the regions span 78.9 to 81.5 years at birth.
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 Saint Stephen’s own areas.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
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
Habits · 2023/2024
On weight the region is ordinary for New Brunswick: 45% report obesity, the province 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.
The region lives 1.1 years less than its deprivation predicts
Plotted region by region (102 in all, since towns have no figures of their own), Saint Stephen’s region comes out below the trend.
Where residents average 3.1 on the index, regions tend to reach 80.4 years (correlation −0.83, 102 regions); the one Saint Stephen belongs to trails at 79.3. Its 10 closest matches on deprivation lean longer-lived: 9 of them above it, a median of 80.9.
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.
From Saint Stephen, a hospital is 5.2 km away on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Saint Stephen’s own, not the region’s.
Residents of Saint Stephen 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. 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.
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
Stress touches 22% of adults on most days; mental health is rated very good or excellent by 50%, the province 49% (New Brunswick).
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Health in the places around Saint Stephen
The places around, with the distance to a hospital and their regions’ figures. Tap a town for its health page.
| Town | Hospital | Very good health | Life exp. | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint Stephen | 5.2 km | 43% | 79.3 | C |
| St. Stephen 4.8 km | 1.8 km | 43% | 79.3 | C |
| Saint David 5.0 km | 8.0 km | 43% | 79.3 | C− |
| Saint James 9.9 km | 19 km | 43% | 79.3 | D |
The neighbours all sit in Saint Stephen’s health region, which is why their regional columns are identical. Saint James is the furthest from care, 19 km to Saint Stephen’s 5.2 km.
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.
- Regional figures. Statistics Canada reports the survey and life expectancy by health region, not by town: Saint Stephen shares them with its neighbours, while the distances are measured for it alone.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 Stephen
How is Saint Stephen’s Health Grade worked out?
Not so far; the grade arrives with Canada’s grading run and will set the region’s figures, plus Saint Stephen’s own distance to care, against the typical Canadian town.
How healthy is Saint Stephen?
The region trails the typical Canadian town on each of its four survey and life-expectancy figures. Chronic conditions there average 21% across arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure.
What is the life expectancy in Saint Stephen?
Life expectancy comes by health region: 81.1 for women, 77.3 for men around Saint Stephen (2022/2024).
How far is Saint Stephen from a hospital?
Beyond the hospital, the average home in Saint Stephen is 4.9 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).