Photo: WabbitWanderer from London, Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0Very good or excellent health for 51% of adults in Fall River’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 Fall River’s is long: 7.3 km to a hospital on average, against 3.7 km typical. Fall River grades B for health, #19 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #1,663 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
Fall River 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: #19 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #1,663 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.
Deprivation predicts more: the region falls 0.8 years short of the trend
The comparison runs between 102 health regions, each shared by its towns; Fall River’s region’s dot is under the line.
Where residents average 2.6 on the index, regions tend to reach 82.2 years (correlation −0.83, 102 regions); the one Fall River belongs to trails at 81.4. Set beside its 10 nearest neighbours on the index, it trails the majority, 5 of 10; their median is 81.7 years. Households here earn around $81,000, less than in most regions, but the region still outlives most; across regions income barely tracks life expectancy (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.
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
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 Fall River: 7.3 km on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Fall River’s own, not the region’s.
That is close to the 9.2 km of the typical town in Nova Scotia (the typical Canadian town: 3.7 km), as Fall River goes. 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.
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
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
The index is context and never graded: it describes Fall River’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
Mental wellbeing sits at the provincial level, 48% very good or excellent against 48% for Nova Scotia; stress is a daily matter for 24%.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Fall River is 32nd of 40 towns its size for nearness to a hospital
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 9,040 to 9,387 people, median 3.9 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Central SK B+ | 9,124 | 0.7 km | 49% |
| 2 | Danforth ON A | 9,364 | 1.0 km | 50% |
| 3 | Downtown Commercial Core AB A+ | 9,286 | 1.0 km | 56% |
| 30 | Vankleek Hill ON C+ | 9,321 | 7.0 km | 49% |
| 31 | La Pêche QC B | 9,379 | 7.1 km | 55% |
| 32 | Fall River NS B | 9,214 | 7.3 km | 51% |
| 33 | Portugal Cove-St. Philip's NL B− | 9,167 | 8.6 km | 54% |
| 34 | Boischatel QC A+ | 9,250 | 8.7 km | 62% |
| 40 | Saint-Apollinaire QC B+ | 9,218 | 22 km | 59% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Fall River
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall River | 7.3 km | 51% | 81.4 | B |
| Beaver Bank 4.7 km | 9.0 km | 51% | 81.4 | B |
| Lower Sackville 6.9 km | 2.4 km | 51% | 81.4 | B+ |
| Middle Sackville 8.2 km | 6.4 km | 51% | 81.4 | B |
| Dutch Settlement 9.1 km | 16 km | 51% | 81.4 | B− |
| Bedford 12 km | 4.9 km | 51% | 81.4 | B+ |
| Hammonds Plains 16 km | 10 km | 51% | 81.4 | B |
One health region covers Fall River and every place in the table, so the survey and life-expectancy columns read the same. Dutch Settlement is the furthest from care, 16 km to Fall River’s 7.3 km.
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.
- What counts as a hospital. Hospitals and clinics come from Statistics Canada’s facilities database, built from provincial lists of different dates, and a listed hospital may have no emergency department.
- Who the survey asks. People on reserves and in institutions, full-time military members and the residents of Nunavik and Eeyou Istchee aren’t interviewed by the survey.
- 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 Fall River’s own.
- Deprivation is context. None of the four deprivation scores enters the grade; they come from the 2021 index, which skips the territories.
- Distances are straight lines. A straight line from each neighbourhood’s centre to the nearest facility, weighted by who lives there, is shorter than any drive.
Questions about health in Fall River
How is Fall River’s Health Grade worked out?
Not so far; the grade arrives with Canada’s grading run and will set the region’s figures, plus Fall River’s own distance to care, against the typical Canadian town.
How far is Fall River from a hospital?
A pharmacy is 2.3 km from the average resident of Fall River, as the crow flies; clinic lists here are too thin to measure.
How healthy is Fall River?
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 Fall River?
Women in Fall River’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).