Photo: Sarbelito Avila · CC BY-SA 3.0Very good or excellent health for 51% of adults in Lake Echo’s health region
Women in the region live to 83.4 and men to 79.3, 81.4 years taken together (2022/2024). Measured from where Lake Echo’s residents live, the nearest hospital is 15 km away, beyond the typical 3.7 km. Health gives Lake Echo a grade of B, #29 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #1,933 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Lake Echo
Far from a hospital
For 0% of homes in Lake Echo the nearest hospital is over 30 km off; from the town’s centre of population it is 16 km. 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.
Lake Echo 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: #29 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #1,933 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.
From Lake Echo, a hospital is 15 km away on average
Straight-line distances from each part of Lake Echo, weighted by who lives there.
Lake Echo 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.
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, Lake Echo’s, lies beneath the trend.
Shorter lives come with deeper deprivation across the 102 regions (correlation −0.83). Even allowing for its score of 2.6, Lake Echo’s region’s 81.4 years sit under the line’s 82.2. Among the 10 regions closest to it on the index, longer lives win out: 5 of the 10, around a median of 81.7 years. Lower incomes, longer lives: about $81,000 a household, under most regions’, with a life expectancy above most; income and lifespan correlate at only 0.14 across regions.
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
Long-term conditions and habits as the region’s adults reported them; the tick marks the province.
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.
How the 4 health regions in Nova Scotia compare on life expectancy
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; Lake Echo’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%
The survey’s answers for the region as given, each beside the province’s (the tick).
Share of adults, as answered · 2023/2024
Mental health is close to the province’s: 48% rate it very good or excellent, against 48% in Nova Scotia, and 24% find most days quite 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: Lake Echo comes 38th of 40
The 40 Canadian towns nearest its population (5,152 to 5,297 people), nearest a hospital first; their median is 2.8 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Alexander MB B+ | 5,161 | 0.5 km | 52% |
| 2 | Heritage SK B+ | 5,172 | 0.5 km | 49% |
| 3 | Didsbury AB A+ | 5,185 | 1.0 km | 56% |
| 36 | Centre Hastings ON D | 5,170 | 13 km | 45% |
| 37 | Saint-Denis-de-Brompton QC A | 5,249 | 14 km | 57% |
| 38 | Lake Echo NS B | 5,223 | 15 km | 51% |
| 39 | Upper Tantallon NS B− | 5,248 | 20 km | 51% |
| 40 | Marystown NL D− | 5,196 | 31 km | 44% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Lake Echo
The places around, with the distance to a hospital and their regions’ figures. Tap a town for its health page.
| Town | Hospital | Very good health | Life exp. | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Echo | 15 km | 51% | 81.4 | B |
| East Preston 5.3 km | 10 km | 51% | 81.4 | B |
| Lawrencetown 7.6 km | 12 km | 51% | 81.4 | B |
| Gaetz Brook 8.9 km | 8.0 km | 51% | 81.4 | B |
| Westphal 9.9 km | 6.7 km | 51% | 81.4 | B |
| East Lawrencetown 10 km | 17 km | 51% | 81.4 | B− |
| Cole Harbour 12 km | 5.5 km | 51% | 81.4 | B+ |
Because the health region stops further out than these places, they all carry Lake Echo’s regional figures. Cole Harbour is the closest to care, 5.5 km to Lake Echo’s 15 km.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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.
- 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.
- Deprivation is context. None of the four deprivation scores enters the grade; they come from the 2021 index, which skips the territories.
- Regional figures. Every place in the health region carries the same survey and life-expectancy figures; what is measured for Lake Echo itself is the trip to care.
- 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. 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 Lake Echo
How far is Lake Echo from a hospital?
Residents of Lake Echo have a pharmacy 7.6 km away on average, in a straight line.
How healthy is Lake Echo?
More of the region’s survey and life-expectancy figures trail the typical Canadian town than beat it. Its chronic-condition figure, age-standardised, is 18%.
What is the life expectancy in Lake Echo?
For the health region that includes Lake Echo, women can expect 83.4 years and men 79.3 (2022/2024).
How is Lake Echo’s Health Grade worked out?
No letter yet for Lake Echo: Canada is graded in one run, and Health will then compare its region and its access to care with the typical Canadian town.
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).