Photo: Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit , Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center · Public domain51% of adults around Gaetz Brook rate their health very good or excellent
A baby born in the region can expect 81.4 years, 83.4 for a girl and 79.3 for a boy (2022/2024). Closer to home, a hospital is 8.0 km from the average resident of Gaetz Brook, further than the usual 3.7 km. Health gives Gaetz Brook a grade of B, #21 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #1,697 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
Gaetz Brook 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: #21 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #1,697 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.
Behind regions as deprived by 0.8 years of life
Regions, not towns, with every town in a region sharing its dot: of the 102, the marked one, Gaetz Brook’s, lies beneath the trend.
Set against 102 regions on the deprivation index (correlation −0.83), the region Gaetz Brook belongs to lives less long than its score of 2.6 predicts: 81.4 years, where the trend gives 82.2. Set beside its 10 nearest neighbours on the index, it trails the majority, 5 of 10; their median is 81.7 years. Modest pay, about $81,000 a household, and long lives sit side by side here: across regions, income and life expectancy hardly move together (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
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.
From Gaetz Brook, a hospital is 8.0 km away on average
Straight-line distances from each part of Gaetz Brook, weighted by who lives there.
Residents of Gaetz Brook travel about as far as 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.
Life expectancy across the 4 health regions in Nova Scotia
What Statistics Canada publishes above the town: life expectancy for each health region in Nova Scotia, and the deprivation index for the town’s own areas.
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
Statistics Canada scores every small area from 1 to 5 on each dimension; Gaetz Brook’s bars are its residents’ average, shown and not graded.
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
Asked about their mental health, 48% of adults here said very good or excellent; across Nova Scotia it was 48%, and 24% reported most days stressful.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Further from a hospital than most towns its size: Gaetz Brook comes 27th of 40
The 40 Canadian towns nearest its population (4,390 to 4,555 people), nearest a hospital first; their median is 4.3 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eastmount ON B+ | 4,496 | 0.6 km | 53% |
| 2 | Golden BC B+ | 4,433 | 0.7 km | 57% |
| 3 | Centennial MB B+ | 4,483 | 0.7 km | 52% |
| 25 | Oxford AB B | 4,460 | 6.3 km | 51% |
| 26 | Montague ON B− | 4,414 | 6.5 km | 51% |
| 27 | Gaetz Brook NS B | 4,473 | 8.0 km | 51% |
| 28 | Shelburne NS D | 4,542 | 11 km | 44% |
| 29 | Queenswood - Chatelaine ON A | 4,537 | 11 km | 56% |
| 40 | Casselman ON C− | 4,535 | 32 km | 49% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Gaetz Brook
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gaetz Brook | 8.0 km | 51% | 81.4 | B |
| East Lawrencetown 8.8 km | 17 km | 51% | 81.4 | B− |
| Lake Echo 8.9 km | 15 km | 51% | 81.4 | B |
| Musquodoboit Harbour 9.8 km | 5.9 km | 51% | 81.4 | B |
| East Preston 14 km | 10 km | 51% | 81.4 | B |
| Lawrencetown 14 km | 12 km | 51% | 81.4 | B |
| Westphal 18 km | 6.7 km | 51% | 81.4 | B |
Only the hospital column is local here: Gaetz Brook and its neighbours share one health region’s survey. Residents of East Lawrencetown live further from a hospital, at 17 km against 8.0 km in Gaetz Brook.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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.
- Adjusted for age. Self-rated health, chronic conditions and smoking enter the grade adjusted to Canada’s adult age mix, though the survey block prints them as people answered.
- Who the survey asks. The health survey leaves out people living on reserves, full-time Canadian Forces members, people in institutions, and Nunavik and the Cree lands of James Bay.
- 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.
- Regional figures. Every place in the health region carries the same survey and life-expectancy figures; what is measured for Gaetz Brook itself is the trip to care.
Questions about health in Gaetz Brook
How is Gaetz Brook’s Health Grade worked out?
Canada’s grades haven’t been set, so Gaetz Brook has none yet; when they are, Health will set its region and its hospital distance against the typical Canadian town.
How far is Gaetz Brook from a hospital?
Residents of Gaetz Brook have a pharmacy 3.9 km away on average, in a straight line.
How healthy is Gaetz Brook?
Most of the region’s figures sit on the less healthy side of the typical Canadian town’s, though not all. The three chronic conditions the grade counts average 18% of adults.
What is the life expectancy in Gaetz Brook?
There is no figure for Gaetz Brook 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).