Photo: Dennis G. Jarvis · CC BY-SA 2.0Very good or excellent health for 51% of adults in Sheet Harbour’s health region
Statistics Canada puts the region’s life expectancy at 81.4, women 83.4 and men 79.3 (2022/2024). For Sheet Harbour itself the measure is access, and it lags: 12 km to the nearest hospital, where 3.7 km is typical. Health gives Sheet Harbour a grade of B, #28 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #1,880 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Sheet Harbour
A long way to hospital
Distance is Sheet Harbour’s own health question: 0% of residents live beyond 30 km of a hospital, and the trip from its centre is 3.2 km. Getting care ↓
A long way to a pharmacy
The nearest pharmacy on OpenStreetMap is 15 km from the average home in Sheet Harbour, so prescriptions mean a drive. Getting care ↓
Harder circumstances
On the index’s situational vulnerability, which follows housing, income and education, Sheet Harbour’s neighbourhoods average 4.7 out of 5, among the most deprived fifth of the country. The wider area ↓
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.
Sheet Harbour 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: #28 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #1,880 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 Sheet Harbour, a hospital is 12 km away on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Sheet Harbour’s own, not the region’s.
From Sheet Harbour that is further than the 9.2 km of the typical town in Nova Scotia, and the 3.7 km of the typical Canadian town. The centre of population is 3.2 km from a hospital, but spread-out homes take the residents’ average to 12 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.
How the 4 health regions in Nova Scotia compare on life expectancy
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
Top of the 4 regions in Nova Scotia: the lowest figure is 78.8, 2.6 years below the highest.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
The index is context and never graded: it describes Sheet Harbour’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.
Deprivation predicts more: the region falls 0.8 years short of the trend
One dot per health region, 102 in all, since life expectancy and the index are published for regions; Sheet Harbour’s dot is marked, under the line.
Use the deprivation index alone and Sheet Harbour’s region, at 2.6, should live about 82.2 years, the trend through 102 regions (correlation −0.83), but it reaches only 81.4. 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. The towns here bring in about $81,000 a household, below the typical region, while living longer than it; that is why income, which correlates at just 0.14 with life expectancy across regions, isn’t the measure.
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.
High blood pressure for 21% of adults in the region, diabetes for 7.5%
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.
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
Stress touches 24% of adults on most days; mental health is rated very good or excellent by 48%, the province 48% (Nova Scotia).
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Sheet Harbour is 27th of 40 towns its size for nearness to a hospital
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 3,290 to 3,389 people, median 4.8 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rankin Inlet NU D | 3,336 | 0.5 km | 39% |
| 2 | Miller AB B+ | 3,294 | 0.8 km | 51% |
| 3 | Virden MB B− | 3,322 | 1.1 km | 51% |
| 25 | Saint-André-d'Argenteuil QC A | 3,300 | 11 km | 60% |
| 26 | Compton QC A | 3,351 | 11 km | 57% |
| 27 | Sheet Harbour NS B | 3,334 | 12 km | 51% |
| 28 | Grande-Rivière QC C+ | 3,318 | 13 km | 56% |
| 29 | Enderby BC B | 3,292 | 14 km | 52% |
| 40 | Arviat NU D− | 3,330 | 216 km | 39% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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 Sheet Harbour’s own.
- Deprivation is context. The Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation (2021) is context, never graded, and the territories have none.
- Adjusted for age. Because older people report more illness, the grade uses age-standardised shares; the charts above show the unadjusted answers.
- 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.
- 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.
Questions about health in Sheet Harbour
How is Sheet Harbour’s Health Grade worked out?
Not yet: Health will weigh the region’s survey and life expectancy and Sheet Harbour’s distance to a hospital against the typical Canadian town once Canada’s grading run happens.
How far is Sheet Harbour from a hospital?
A pharmacy is 15 km from the average resident of Sheet Harbour, as the crow flies; clinic lists here are too thin to measure.
How healthy is Sheet Harbour?
The region does worse than the typical Canadian town on most regional measures, with at least one exception. On arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure, the region’s average share is 18%.
What is the life expectancy in Sheet Harbour?
Statistics Canada publishes it for Sheet Harbour’s health region only: 83.4 years for women and 79.3 for men (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).