Photo: WayeMason · CC BY-SA 3.0Around Halifax, 51% of adults call their health very good or excellent
Lives in the region last 81.4 years on average (2022/2024): 83.4 for women, 79.3 for men. Closer to home, a hospital is 6.0 km from the average resident of Halifax, further than the usual 3.7 km. The region has fewer smokers than Nova Scotia, 11% of adults to 14%.
What stands out about health in Halifax
Pharmacies on every corner
With 6.9 pharmacies within 3 km of the average home and the nearest 2.1 km off, Halifax is well served for prescriptions. Getting care ↓
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.
Health in Halifax: the grade is still to come
The inputs, each beside the typical one of Canadian towns: four for the health region, one for the town itself.
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 nearest hospital is 6.0 km from the average home in Halifax
Straight-line distances from each part of Halifax, weighted by who lives there.
From Halifax 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.
Deprivation predicts more: the region falls 0.8 years short of the trend
Compared region with region (102 health regions, each figure shared by all its towns); Halifax’s region is below the line.
Shorter lives come with deeper deprivation across the 102 regions (correlation −0.83). Even allowing for its score of 2.6, Halifax’s region’s 81.4 years sit under the line’s 82.2. Even beside regions as deprived, it lags: 5 of its 10 closest matches reach further, their median 81.7 years. Judged by income, around $81,000 a household, the region would look poorly placed, but income tracks life expectancy only weakly between regions (0.14), and this one outlives most.
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.
Longest and shortest lives among the 4 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; Halifax’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
The region’s 48% in very good or excellent mental health is within reach of Nova Scotia’s 48%, with 24% reporting stressful days.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Health in the places around Halifax
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Halifax | 6.0 km | 51% | 81.4 | — |
| Austinville 1.4 km | 2.6 km | 51% | 81.4 | B+ |
| Windsor Park 3.3 km | 1.9 km | 51% | 81.4 | B+ |
| North End 3.6 km | 0.7 km | 51% | 81.4 | B+ |
| Manor Park 3.9 km | 1.8 km | 51% | 81.4 | B+ |
| Fairview 4.8 km | 3.8 km | 51% | 81.4 | B+ |
| Woodlawn 4.9 km | 4.1 km | 51% | 81.4 | B+ |
Nothing in the regional columns separates Halifax from its neighbours; the hospital distance is what does. Residents of North End live nearer a hospital, at 0.7 km against 6.0 km in Halifax.
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.
- Regional figures. Every place in the health region carries the same survey and life-expectancy figures; what is measured for Halifax itself is the trip to care.
- 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.
- Adjusted for age. The grade’s three survey shares are age-standardised to Canada’s adults, so an older region isn’t marked down for age alone, while the survey charts show answers as given.
- Who the survey asks. Not everyone is in the survey’s sample: reserves, the Canadian Forces, institutions and two northern Québec regions are left out.
Questions about health in Halifax
Does Halifax have a Health grade?
It will once Canada’s single grading run is done, measured on the region’s survey and life expectancy and on how far Halifax’s homes are from a hospital, against the typical Canadian town.
How far is Halifax from a hospital?
Residents of Halifax have a pharmacy 2.1 km away on average, in a straight line.
How healthy is Halifax?
Taken together the region leans less healthy than the typical Canadian town, but the picture is mixed. On arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure, the region’s average share is 18%.
What is the life expectancy in Halifax?
For the health region that includes Halifax, women can expect 83.4 years and men 79.3 (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).