Eskasoni 3 scores below 90% of Canadian towns for health
Self-rated health is ordinary for Nova Scotia: 49% of the region’s adults say very good or excellent, the province 48%. What sets Eskasoni 3 apart within its region is a longer trip to hospital, 20 km for the average resident (3.7 km typical). Eskasoni 3 is a First Nations reserve: a Health grade is possible, an overall grade and a ranking are not. The health survey doesn’t interview people living on reserves, so these regional figures describe the surrounding region, not Eskasoni 3. The Health grade for Eskasoni 3 is D.
What stands out about health in Eskasoni 3
A region where lives run shorter
Born around Eskasoni 3, a child can expect 2.7 fewer years than in the typical Canadian town’s region; at 65, another 19.1 (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
Hospital care at a distance
Distance is Eskasoni 3’s own health question: 0% of residents live beyond 30 km of a hospital, and the trip from its centre is 21 km. Getting care ↓
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: 30% report high blood pressure and 11% diabetes. Conditions and habits ↓
More smokers
The age-standardised smoking rate around Eskasoni 3 is well above the typical town’s; 12% of adults are daily smokers. Conditions and habits ↓
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.
Eskasoni 3 grades D 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.
Longest and shortest lives among the 4 regions in Nova Scotia
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
This is the shortest-lived of the 4 regions in Nova Scotia, 2.6 years behind the first at 81.4.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
The index is context and never graded: it describes Eskasoni 3’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 Eskasoni 3: 20 km on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Eskasoni 3’s own, not the region’s.
From Eskasoni 3 that is further than the 9.2 km of the typical town in Nova Scotia, and the 3.7 km of the typical Canadian town. Few clinics are listed in Nova Scotia, 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.
In the region, high blood pressure (30%) and diabetes (11%)
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
More adults report obesity than across Nova Scotia: 45%, the province 39%.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (table 13-10-0972), as published, not adjusted for age; obesity from reported height and weight.
Ahead of regions as deprived by 1.7 years of life
Regions, not towns, with every town in a region sharing its dot: of the 102, the marked one, Eskasoni 3’s, lies over the trend.
Ranked from least to most deprived on Statistics Canada’s index, regions see lives shorten along the way (correlation −0.83, 102 regions). Scored 4.0, Eskasoni 3’s region would be expected to reach 77.1 years; it reaches 78.8. Among the 10 regions closest to it on the index, shorter lives win out: 6 of the 10, around a median of 77.8 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.
About as many rate their health highly here as in Nova Scotia: 48% and 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
Mental health looks better than in the province too: 51% rate it very good or excellent, against 48% in Nova Scotia, and 24% find most days quite stressful.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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.
- Deprivation is context. Deprivation is shown to set the scene and doesn’t count toward the grade; Statistics Canada left the territories out of the index.
- Distances are straight lines. Roads, rivers and ferries aren’t in it: the figure is a straight line from where people live, averaged over residents.
- What counts as a hospital. A “hospital” here is whatever the provinces listed as one in Statistics Canada’s database, which can mean a site without an emergency department.
- Regional figures. Every place in the health region carries the same survey and life-expectancy figures; what is measured for Eskasoni 3 itself is the trip to care.
Questions about health in Eskasoni 3
How far is Eskasoni 3 from a hospital?
Residents of Eskasoni 3 have a pharmacy 20 km away on average, in a straight line.
How is Eskasoni 3’s Health Grade worked out?
Canada’s grades haven’t been set, so Eskasoni 3 has none yet; when they are, Health will set its region and its hospital distance against the typical Canadian town. As a First Nations reserve it gets no overall grade, and the survey doesn’t interview people on reserves, so the regional figures don’t describe it.
What is the life expectancy in Eskasoni 3?
Life expectancy comes by health region: 80.9 for women, 76.6 for men around Eskasoni 3 (2022/2024).
How healthy is Eskasoni 3?
All four of the region’s figures sit on the less healthy side of the typical Canadian town’s. On arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure, the region’s average share is 21%.
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).