Photo: Coastal Elite from Halifax, Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0Very good or excellent health for 51% of adults in Cole Harbour’s health region
Life expectancy in the region is 81.4 years (83.4 for women, 79.3 for men, 2022/2024). The town’s own part is the trip to care, and Cole Harbour’s is long: 5.5 km to a hospital on average, against 3.7 km typical. Health gives Cole Harbour a grade of B+, #13 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #1,563 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
Cole Harbour grades B+ 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: #13 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #1,563 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.
The region lives 0.8 years less than its deprivation predicts
Plotted region by region (102 in all, since towns have no figures of their own), Cole Harbour’s region comes out below the trend.
Deprivation accounts for much of the spread between regions (correlation −0.83 over 102), but not for all of Cole Harbour’s region’s: 81.4 years where the line expects 82.2 at 2.6. Its 10 closest matches on deprivation lean longer-lived: 5 of them above it, a median of 81.7. Its towns’ household income, about $81,000, sits below most regions’ while its life expectancy sits above; across regions it is the deprivation index, not income, that follows lives (income’s correlation: 0.14).
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.
In the region, high blood pressure (21%) and diabetes (7.5%)
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
Obesity runs lower than in the province, at 35% of adults against 39% for Nova Scotia.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (table 13-10-0972), as published, not adjusted for age; obesity from reported height and weight.
Getting to hospital from Cole Harbour: 5.5 km on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Cole Harbour’s own, not the region’s.
From Cole Harbour that is nearer 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.
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
No region of the 4 in Nova Scotia lives longer than this one; the shortest-lived reaches 78.8, a gap of 2.6 years.
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 Cole Harbour’s own areas.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
51% in the region call their health very good or excellent, more 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
Stress touches 24% of adults on most days; mental health is rated very good or excellent by 48%, the province 48% (Nova Scotia).
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Among 40 towns its size, Cole Harbour is 31st nearest a hospital
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 21,130 to 22,076 people, median 2.5 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Parkdale ON A | 21,663 | 0.5 km | 50% |
| 2 | East L'Amoreaux ON A | 21,533 | 0.6 km | 50% |
| 3 | Englemount-Lawrence ON A | 21,455 | 0.7 km | 50% |
| 29 | Riverside ON B | 21,828 | 5.1 km | 52% |
| 30 | Evanston AB A | 21,483 | 5.3 km | 56% |
| 31 | Cole Harbour NS B+ | 21,627 | 5.5 km | 51% |
| 32 | Forest Glade ON B | 21,328 | 6.2 km | 52% |
| 33 | Saddle Ridge AB A | 21,479 | 6.7 km | 56% |
| 40 | South Frontenac ON B− | 21,599 | 22 km | 53% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Cole Harbour
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cole Harbour | 5.5 km | 51% | 81.4 | B+ |
| Portland Estates 2.8 km | 2.6 km | 51% | 81.4 | B+ |
| Westphal 3.4 km | 6.7 km | 51% | 81.4 | B |
| Woodlawn 4.7 km | 4.1 km | 51% | 81.4 | B+ |
| Manor Park 5.3 km | 1.8 km | 51% | 81.4 | B+ |
| Eastern Passage 5.5 km | 7.0 km | 51% | 81.4 | B |
| Lawrencetown 6.0 km | 12 km | 51% | 81.4 | B |
Same region, same survey: Cole Harbour’s neighbours differ only in how far they are from a hospital. Lawrencetown is the furthest from care, 12 km to Cole Harbour’s 5.5 km.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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.
- 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.
- Adjusted for age. Because older people report more illness, the grade uses age-standardised shares; the charts above show the unadjusted answers.
- Who the survey asks. The survey’s frame skips reserves and other Indigenous settlements, institutions, the Forces and two Québec regions, so their figures come from elsewhere or not at all.
- Regional figures. Statistics Canada reports the survey and life expectancy by health region, not by town: Cole Harbour shares them with its neighbours, while the distances are measured for it alone.
Questions about health in Cole Harbour
How is Cole Harbour’s Health Grade worked out?
Canada’s grades haven’t been set, so Cole Harbour has none yet; when they are, Health will set its region and its hospital distance against the typical Canadian town.
How far is Cole Harbour from a hospital?
Beyond the hospital, the average home in Cole Harbour is 1.6 km from a pharmacy; clinics are too sparsely listed in the province to say.
How healthy is Cole Harbour?
The region does worse than the typical Canadian town on most regional measures, with at least one exception. Its chronic-condition figure, age-standardised, is 18%.
What is the life expectancy in Cole Harbour?
There is no figure for Cole Harbour alone; its health region’s is 83.4 for women and 79.3 for men in 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).