Photo: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit , Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center · Public domainVery good or excellent health for 51% of adults in Dutch Settlement’s health region
A baby born in the region can expect 81.4 years, 83.4 for a girl and 79.3 for a boy (2022/2024). The town’s own part is the trip to care, and Dutch Settlement’s is long: 16 km to a hospital on average, against 3.7 km typical. The Health grade for Dutch Settlement is B−, #31 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #1,955 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Dutch Settlement
Hospital care at a distance
For 0% of homes in Dutch Settlement the nearest hospital is over 30 km off; from the town’s centre of population it is 16 km. Getting care ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Dutch Settlement 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: #31 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #1,955 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.
Getting to hospital from Dutch Settlement: 16 km on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Dutch Settlement’s own, not the region’s.
Dutch Settlement is further out than the provincial norm of 9.2 km in Nova Scotia, and than the typical Canadian town at 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.
Deprivation predicts more: the region falls 0.8 years short of the trend
Regions, not towns, with every town in a region sharing its dot: of the 102, the marked one, Dutch Settlement’s, lies beneath the trend.
Life expectancy and deprivation move in opposite directions across 102 regions (correlation −0.83); at 2.6, the expected figure is 82.2 years, and Dutch Settlement’s region falls below with 81.4. Set beside its 10 nearest neighbours on the index, it trails the majority, 5 of 10; their median is 81.7 years. On income alone, around $81,000 a household, this region would be expected to fare worse than most, yet it lives longer; between regions the link is weak (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.
21% of the region’s adults have high blood pressure and 7.5% 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, 35%, trails 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.
Life expectancy across the 4 health 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 longest-lived of the 4 regions in Nova Scotia, 2.6 years ahead of the last at 78.8.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
The index is context and never graded: it describes Dutch Settlement’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.
Self-rated health beats Nova Scotia: 51% very good or excellent, against 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
On mental health the region tracks Nova Scotia, 48% very good or excellent to 48%; 24% describe most days as quite a bit stressful.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Dutch Settlement is 35th of 40 towns its size for nearness to a hospital
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 6,126 to 6,344 people, median 3.2 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beasley ON B+ | 6,338 | 0.4 km | 53% |
| 2 | Neepawa MB B− | 6,328 | 0.7 km | 51% |
| 3 | Cherry Hill ON A | 6,304 | 0.7 km | 53% |
| 33 | Woodstock NB C− | 6,260 | 15 km | 45% |
| 34 | Beaver County AB C | 6,245 | 15 km | 52% |
| 35 | Dutch Settlement NS B− | 6,234 | 16 km | 51% |
| 36 | Barrhead County No. 11 AB D | 6,186 | 17 km | 48% |
| 37 | Willow Creek No. 26 AB C+ | 6,225 | 17 km | 52% |
| 40 | Saint-Césaire QC B+ | 6,150 | 21 km | 55% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Dutch Settlement
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dutch Settlement | 16 km | 51% | 81.4 | B− |
| Fall River 9.1 km | 7.3 km | 51% | 81.4 | B |
| Beaver Bank 11 km | 9.0 km | 51% | 81.4 | B |
| Enfield 16 km | 26 km | 42% | 79.3 | D− |
| Lower Sackville 16 km | 2.4 km | 51% | 81.4 | B+ |
| Middle Sackville 16 km | 6.4 km | 51% | 81.4 | B |
Enfield falls in another health region, with a life expectancy of 79.3 against 81.4 here. Lower Sackville is the closest to care, 2.4 km to Dutch Settlement’s 16 km.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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.
- Deprivation is context. The Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation (2021) is context, never graded, and the territories have none.
- 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 Dutch Settlement’s own.
- 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.
- 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 Dutch Settlement
How is Dutch Settlement’s Health Grade worked out?
Not so far; the grade arrives with Canada’s grading run and will set the region’s figures, plus Dutch Settlement’s own distance to care, against the typical Canadian town.
How far is Dutch Settlement from a hospital?
A pharmacy is 5.6 km from the average resident of Dutch Settlement, as the crow flies; clinic lists here are too thin to measure.
How healthy is Dutch Settlement?
Taken together the region leans less healthy than the typical Canadian town, but the picture is mixed. Chronic conditions there average 18% across arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure.
What is the life expectancy in Dutch Settlement?
Women in Dutch Settlement’s region live to 83.4 on average and men to 79.3, Statistics Canada’s 2022/2024 estimate.
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).