Photo: Scott Davis · CC BY 2.5Around Wakefield, 45% rate their health very good or excellent, against 52% for the typical Canadian town
People in the region live to 80.1 on average: 81.9 for women and 78.2 for men in 2022/2024. Closer to home, a hospital is 6.4 km from the average resident of Wakefield, further than the usual 3.7 km. Wakefield grades C for health, #25 of 60 in New Brunswick and #2,268 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Wakefield
Smoking runs high
The age-standardised smoking rate around Wakefield is well above the typical town’s; 11% of adults are daily smokers. Conditions and habits ↓
A region where lives run shorter
Born around Wakefield, a child can expect 1.4 fewer years than in the typical Canadian town’s region; at 65, another 19.6 (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Wakefield 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. Its place: #25 of 60 in New Brunswick and #2,268 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
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%)
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
Fewer adults report obesity than across New Brunswick: 39%, 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.
How the 7 health regions in New Brunswick compare on life expectancy
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.
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
This is the one part of the block measured for Wakefield itself, and it sets the scene rather than feeding the grade.
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
Regions, not towns, with every town in a region sharing its dot: of the 102, the marked one, Wakefield’s, lies beneath the trend.
Set against 102 regions on the deprivation index (correlation −0.83), the region Wakefield belongs to lives less long than its score of 2.9 predicts: 80.1 years, where the trend gives 81.1. Set beside its 10 nearest neighbours on the index, it trails the majority, 9 of 10; their median is 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.
From Wakefield, a hospital is 6.4 km away on average
Straight-line distances from each part of Wakefield, weighted by who lives there.
Residents of Wakefield 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. Homes are spread out: from the town’s centre of population the hospital is 2.9 km, while the average resident is 6.4 km away. 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.
About as many rate their health highly here as in New Brunswick: 44% 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 looks weaker than in the province: 45% rate it very good or excellent, against 49% in New Brunswick, and 26% find most days quite stressful.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Among 40 towns its size, Wakefield is 20th nearest a hospital
The 40 Canadian towns nearest its population (2,715 to 2,779 people), nearest a hospital first; their median is 6.5 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Waterridge Village ON A+ | 2,737 | 0.6 km | 56% |
| 2 | Kuujjuaq QC | 2,766 | 0.7 km | – |
| 3 | Kameyosek AB B+ | 2,761 | 0.7 km | 51% |
| 18 | Musquodoboit Harbour NS B | 2,719 | 5.9 km | 51% |
| 19 | Marritt ON B | 2,759 | 6.0 km | 53% |
| 20 | Wakefield NB C | 2,749 | 6.4 km | 45% |
| 21 | Country Hills Village AB A | 2,731 | 6.5 km | 56% |
| 22 | Sussex NB C− | 2,742 | 7.5 km | 43% |
| 40 | Waskaganish QC | 2,726 | 132 km | – |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Wakefield
Nearby places: distance to a hospital and each one’s regional figures. Tap a town for its health page.
The neighbours all sit in Wakefield’s health region, which is why their regional columns are identical. Residents of Woodstock live further from a hospital, at 19 km against 6.4 km in Wakefield.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Regional figures. Every place in the health region carries the same survey and life-expectancy figures; what is measured for Wakefield itself is the trip to care.
- Deprivation is context. The Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation (2021) is context, never graded, and the territories have none.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Adjusted for age. Self-rated health, chronic conditions and smoking enter the grade adjusted to Canada’s adult age mix, though the survey block prints them as people answered.
Questions about health in Wakefield
How is Wakefield’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 Wakefield’s homes are from a hospital, against the typical Canadian town.
How healthy is Wakefield?
All four of the region’s figures sit on the less healthy side of the typical Canadian town’s. The three chronic conditions the grade counts average 18% of adults.
What is the life expectancy in Wakefield?
Women in Wakefield’s region live to 81.9 on average and men to 78.2, Statistics Canada’s 2022/2024 estimate.
How far is Wakefield from a hospital?
Residents of Wakefield have a pharmacy 5.8 km away on average, in a straight line.
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).