Photo: Edgar El · CC BY 3.0Smoking runs high around Lunenburg: 19% of adults, the typical Canadian town 12%
The survey puts the region’s share in very good or excellent health at 44%, behind the 48% for Nova Scotia. Closer to home, a hospital is just 1.0 km from the average resident of Lunenburg, nearer than the usual 3.7 km. Health gives Lunenburg a grade of C−, #40 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #2,355 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Lunenburg
Self-rated health runs low
The survey’s age-standardised figure sits 7.4 points under the typical Canadian town’s, and 42% answered very good or excellent. Health survey ↓
A heavier load of illness
Arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure are commoner here than in the typical town’s region, even for its ages: 27% report high blood pressure and 13% diabetes. Conditions and habits ↓
Shorter lives in the region
Lunenburg’s region sits 1.5 years below the typical Canadian town, and those reaching 65 have 19.7 years ahead (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
Living past what deprivation predicts
Regions scoring 3.9 on the deprivation index typically live 77.8 years; Lunenburg’s region, at 80.0, does better. For its deprivation ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Lunenburg grades C− 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: #40 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #2,355 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.
2.2 years above the line for regions this deprived
These are health regions, 102 of them, not towns: the survey and life expectancy are published that way, so the dot for Lunenburg’s region, above the line, stands for every town in it.
The line through 102 regions (correlation −0.83) puts a deprivation score of 3.9 at 77.8 years of life; Lunenburg’s region does better, at 80.0. None of the 10 regions closest to it on the index lives longer; their middle figure is 78.3 years.
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.
Self-rated health trails Nova Scotia: 42% 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
Stress touches 21% of adults on most days; mental health is rated very good or excellent by 47%, the province 48% (Nova Scotia).
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
27% of the region’s adults have high blood pressure and 13% 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
Self-reported obesity, 40%, sits within a few points of 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
Life expectancy in Nova Scotia runs from 78.8 to 81.4; this region sits 2nd of the 4.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
These four scores average the national quintile of the areas where Lunenburg’s residents live; they carry no weight in the grade.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
Getting to hospital from Lunenburg: 1.0 km on average
Straight-line distances from each part of Lunenburg, weighted by who lives there.
Residents of Lunenburg are closer than 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.
Closer to a hospital than most towns its size: Lunenburg comes 4th of 40
The 40 Canadian towns nearest its population (2,500 to 2,587 people), nearest a hospital first; their median is 4.7 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | City Commercial Core ON A | 2,581 | 0.4 km | 53% |
| 2 | Rimbey AB C+ | 2,502 | 0.8 km | 52% |
| 3 | Elmwood AB B+ | 2,522 | 0.8 km | 51% |
| 4 | Lunenburg NS C− | 2,523 | 1.0 km | 44% |
| 5 | Esterhazy SK C− | 2,513 | 1.0 km | 49% |
| 6 | Magrath AB B | 2,566 | 1.0 km | 52% |
| 40 | North Frontenac ON B− | 2,515 | 47 km | 53% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Lunenburg
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lunenburg | 1.0 km | 44% | 80.0 | C− |
| Mahone Bay 9.7 km | 8.6 km | 44% | 80.0 | D |
| Lunenburg 15 km | 12 km | 44% | 80.0 | D |
| Bridgewater 17 km | 1.4 km | 44% | 80.0 | C− |
Only the hospital column is local here: Lunenburg and its neighbours share one health region’s survey. Residents of Lunenburg live further from a hospital, at 12 km against 1.0 km in Lunenburg.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Regional figures. Every place in the health region carries the same survey and life-expectancy figures; what is measured for Lunenburg itself is the trip to care.
- 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.
- Deprivation is context. Deprivation is shown to set the scene and doesn’t count toward the grade; Statistics Canada left the territories out of the index.
- 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. Roads, rivers and ferries aren’t in it: the figure is a straight line from where people live, averaged over residents.
- What counts as a hospital. A “hospital” here is whatever the provinces listed as one in Statistics Canada’s database, which can mean a site without an emergency department.
Questions about health in Lunenburg
How is Lunenburg’s Health Grade worked out?
No letter yet for Lunenburg: Canada is graded in one run, and Health will then compare its region and its access to care with the typical Canadian town.
How healthy is Lunenburg?
All four of the region’s figures sit on the less healthy side of the typical Canadian town’s. The three chronic conditions the grade counts average 20% of adults.
What is the life expectancy in Lunenburg?
Women in Lunenburg’s region live to 82.5 on average and men to 77.6, Statistics Canada’s 2022/2024 estimate.
How far is Lunenburg from a hospital?
Residents of Lunenburg have a pharmacy 9.4 km away on average, in a straight line.
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).