Photo: Tim Green from Bradford, UK · CC BY 2.0Shelburne scores below 88% of Canadian towns for health
Adults here are less upbeat about their health than the province: 44% very good or excellent, against 48% in Nova Scotia. For Shelburne itself the measure is access, and it lags: 11 km to the nearest hospital, where 3.7 km is typical. Shelburne grades D for health, #63 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #2,485 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Shelburne
Smoking runs high
The age-standardised smoking rate around Shelburne is well above the typical town’s; 16% of adults are daily smokers. Conditions and habits ↓
Fewer people feeling well
Adjusted for age, the region’s share in very good or excellent health is 7.4 points below the typical Canadian town’s; as answered, it is 42%. 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 ↓
Living past what deprivation predicts
For a deprivation score of 3.9, the trend across regions gives 77.8 years of life; Shelburne’s region reaches 80.0. For its deprivation ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Shelburne grades D 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: #63 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #2,485 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.
High blood pressure for 27% of adults in the region, diabetes for 13%
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 is close to the province’s level, 40% 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.
2.2 years above the line for regions this deprived
Plotted region by region (102 in all, since towns have no figures of their own), Shelburne’s region comes out above the trend.
Measured against 102 regions, more deprivation means shorter lives, and steadily so (correlation −0.83). Shelburne’s region, at 3.9, outlives the trend’s 77.8 years with 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.
Fewer people rate their health highly here than in Nova Scotia: 42% to 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
For 21% of adults most days are quite a bit stressful, and 47% rate their mental health very good or excellent, near Nova Scotia’s 48%.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Getting to hospital from Shelburne: 11 km on average
Straight-line distances from each part of Shelburne, weighted by who lives there.
Shelburne is near the provincial norm, 9.2 km for the typical town in Nova Scotia, with the typical Canadian town at 3.7 km. The centre of population is 3.3 km from a hospital, but spread-out homes take the residents’ average to 11 km. 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.
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
The region comes 2nd of 4 in Nova Scotia, where life expectancy runs from 78.8 to 81.4 years.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
These four scores average the national quintile of the areas where Shelburne’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.
Shelburne is 27th of 40 towns its size for nearness to a hospital
The 40 Canadian towns nearest its population (4,461 to 4,616 people), nearest a hospital first; their median is 4.5 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Country Hills ON A | 4,561 | 0.5 km | 53% |
| 2 | Eastmount ON B+ | 4,496 | 0.6 km | 53% |
| 3 | Centennial MB B+ | 4,483 | 0.7 km | 52% |
| 25 | Saint-Ambroise-de-Kildare QC A− | 4,615 | 7.8 km | 56% |
| 26 | Gaetz Brook NS B | 4,473 | 8.0 km | 51% |
| 27 | Shelburne NS D | 4,542 | 11 km | 44% |
| 28 | Queenswood - Chatelaine ON A | 4,537 | 11 km | 56% |
| 29 | Electoral Area D (Oyster Bay - Buttle Lake), Strathcona BC B+ | 4,546 | 12 km | 54% |
| 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 Shelburne
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shelburne | 11 km | 44% | 80.0 | D |
| Shelburne 3.7 km | 2.0 km | 44% | 80.0 | C− |
The table’s survey and life-expectancy columns are one region’s, Shelburne’s; read across for the hospital trip. Residents of Shelburne live nearer a hospital, at 2.0 km against 11 km in Shelburne.
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 Shelburne itself is the trip to care.
- Deprivation is context. Statistics Canada’s 2021 deprivation index describes the town’s own areas for context only, with no index for the territories.
- Distances are straight lines. They run from where residents live, not along roads, so they understate a drive; each dissemination area counts by its 2021 population.
- Who the survey asks. The survey’s frame skips reserves and other Indigenous settlements, institutions, the Forces and two Québec regions, so their figures come from elsewhere or not at all.
- What counts as a hospital. The facilities database merges provincial lists of different vintages; its hospitals include some with no emergency department, and a few are placed by postal code.
- 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.
Questions about health in Shelburne
How is Shelburne’s Health Grade worked out?
Not so far; the grade arrives with Canada’s grading run and will set the region’s figures, plus Shelburne’s own distance to care, against the typical Canadian town.
How healthy is Shelburne?
The region trails the typical Canadian town on each of its four survey and life-expectancy figures. Chronic conditions there average 20% across arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure.
What is the life expectancy in Shelburne?
For the health region that includes Shelburne, women can expect 82.5 years and men 77.6 (2022/2024).
How far is Shelburne from a hospital?
Residents of Shelburne have a pharmacy 45 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).