Photo: PatHirtle · CC BY-SA 4.019% of adults smoke in the health region around Bridgewater, against 12% for the typical Canadian town
Across the region, 44% of adults say their health is very good or excellent; Nova Scotia as a whole reaches 48%. Measured from where Bridgewater’s residents live, the nearest hospital is 1.4 km away, under the typical 3.7 km. The Health grade for Bridgewater is C−, #41 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #2,373 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Bridgewater
Less upbeat about their health
Even once age is allowed for, 7.4 points fewer adults here call their health very good or excellent than in the typical town’s region (42% as answered). Health survey ↓
More chronic illness
For its ages, the region carries more long-term illness than most: high blood pressure for 27% of adults, diabetes for 13%. Conditions and habits ↓
Shorter lives in the region
Born around Bridgewater, a child can expect 1.5 fewer years than in the typical Canadian town’s region; at 65, another 19.7 (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
Longer lives than its deprivation predicts
For a deprivation score of 3.9, the trend across regions gives 77.8 years of life; Bridgewater’s region reaches 80.0. For its deprivation ↓
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.
Bridgewater 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: #41 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #2,373 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.
A region that outlives its deprivation by 2.2 years
Plotted region by region (102 in all, since towns have no figures of their own), Bridgewater’s region comes out above the trend.
Life expectancy and deprivation move in opposite directions across 102 regions (correlation −0.83); at 3.9, the expected figure is 77.8 years, and Bridgewater’s region does better with 80.0. None of the 10 regions closest to it on the index lives longer; their middle figure is 78.3 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.
42% in the region call their health very good or excellent, fewer than in Nova Scotia (47%)
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
About as many adults report very good or excellent mental health as across Nova Scotia (47% against 48%), while 21% call most days stressful.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
27% of the region’s adults have high blood pressure and 13% 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
Self-reported obesity, 40%, sits within a few points of Nova Scotia (39%).
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (table 13-10-0972), as published, not adjusted for age; obesity from reported height and weight.
How the 4 health regions in Nova Scotia compare on life expectancy
Regional life expectancy in Nova Scotia, then the town’s place on the national deprivation index.
Life expectancy at birth by health region · 2022/2024
Among the 4 regions in Nova Scotia, from 78.8 to 81.4 years, this one is 2nd.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
The index is context and never graded: it describes Bridgewater’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.
Getting to hospital from Bridgewater: 1.4 km on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Bridgewater’s own, not the region’s.
Residents of Bridgewater are closer than most of the province: the typical town in Nova Scotia is 9.2 km from a hospital, the typical Canadian town 3.7 km. The clinic list is thin in Nova Scotia: 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.
Bridgewater is 6th of 40 towns its size for nearness to a hospital
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 9,846 to 10,147 people, median 3.5 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lac-des-Fées QC B+ | 10,075 | 0.5 km | 55% |
| 2 | South Cambie BC A+ | 9,846 | 0.7 km | 50% |
| 3 | Vincent ON B | 10,011 | 1.1 km | 53% |
| 4 | Bridle Path-Sunnybrook-York Mills ON A | 9,909 | 1.2 km | 50% |
| 5 | Maple Leaf ON A | 10,040 | 1.2 km | 50% |
| 6 | Bridgewater NS C− | 9,989 | 1.4 km | 44% |
| 7 | M-Section (bramalea) ON A− | 9,901 | 1.5 km | 49% |
| 8 | Ladysmith BC B | 9,926 | 1.7 km | 47% |
| 40 | Shediac NB C | 9,849 | 24 km | 43% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Bridgewater
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bridgewater | 1.4 km | 44% | 80.0 | C− |
| Lunenburg 2.6 km | 12 km | 44% | 80.0 | D |
| Mahone Bay 13 km | 8.6 km | 44% | 80.0 | D |
| Lunenburg 17 km | 1.0 km | 44% | 80.0 | C− |
Nothing in the regional columns separates Bridgewater from its neighbours; the hospital distance is what does. Residents of Lunenburg live further from a hospital, at 12 km against 1.4 km in Bridgewater.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Regional figures. The survey figures and life expectancy are published for the health region, so every town in it shares them and only the distances are Bridgewater’s own.
- Who the survey asks. Not everyone is in the survey’s sample: reserves, the Canadian Forces, institutions and two northern Québec regions are left out.
- 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.
- Deprivation is context. The Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation (2021) is context, never graded, and the territories have none.
- Adjusted for age. Because older people report more illness, the grade uses age-standardised shares; the charts above show the unadjusted answers.
- 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 Bridgewater
How healthy is Bridgewater?
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 20%.
How is Bridgewater’s Health Grade worked out?
Not so far; the grade arrives with Canada’s grading run and will set the region’s figures, plus Bridgewater’s own distance to care, against the typical Canadian town.
What is the life expectancy in Bridgewater?
Women in Bridgewater’s region live to 82.5 on average and men to 77.6, Statistics Canada’s 2022/2024 estimate.
How far is Bridgewater from a hospital?
A pharmacy is 0.9 km from the average resident of Bridgewater, as the crow flies; clinic lists here are too thin to measure.
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).