Photo: Verne Equinox · CC BY-SA 3.0More long-term illness in St. Mary's’ health region: 21% on the three conditions, the typical Canadian town 17%
In the health survey, 49% of adults in the region rate their health very good or excellent, close to Nova Scotia’s 48%. What sets St. Mary's apart within its region is a longer trip to hospital, 14 km for the average resident (3.7 km typical). Health gives St. Mary's a grade of C−.
What stands out about health in St. Mary's
Shorter lives in the region
Life expectancy in the region around St. Mary's runs 2.7 years behind the typical Canadian town’s, and at 65 people can expect 19.1 more years (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
A long way to hospital
For 0% of homes in St. Mary's the nearest hospital is over 30 km off; from the town’s centre of population it is 7.2 km. Getting care ↓
More smokers
Smoking is commoner around St. Mary's than in the typical Canadian town’s region, and 12% of adults smoke every day. Conditions and habits ↓
Beating its deprivation on life expectancy
Set against regions as deprived (4.0), St. Mary's’ region gains years: 78.8 where the trend says 77.1. For its deprivation ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
St. Mary's 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.
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.
Life expectancy across the 4 health 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
This is the shortest-lived of the 4 regions in Nova Scotia, 2.6 years behind the first at 81.4.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
This is the one part of the block measured for St. Mary's itself, and it sets the scene rather than feeding the grade.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
Getting to hospital from St. Mary's: 14 km on average
Straight-line distances from each part of St. Mary's, weighted by who lives there.
Compared with 9.2 km for the typical town in Nova Scotia and 3.7 km for the typical Canadian town, St. Mary's is on the far side. 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.
30% of the region’s adults have high blood pressure and 11% 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
Obesity runs higher than in the province, at 45% 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.
Deprivation would predict shorter lives: 1.7 years more here
These are health regions, 102 of them, not towns: the survey and life expectancy are published that way, so the dot for St. Mary's’ region, above the line, stands for every town in it.
Life expectancy and deprivation move in opposite directions across 102 regions (correlation −0.83); at 4.0, the expected figure is 77.1 years, and St. Mary's’ region does better with 78.8. Narrow the field to the 10 regions most like it on deprivation and it still beats 6, with 77.8 years in the middle.
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 much as in Nova Scotia: 48% 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
On mental health the region is ahead of Nova Scotia, 51% very good or excellent to 48%; 24% describe most days as quite a bit stressful.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Regional figures. Statistics Canada reports the survey and life expectancy by health region, not by town: St. Mary's shares them with its neighbours, while the distances are measured for it alone.
- 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.
- Deprivation is context. The Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation (2021) is context, never graded, and the territories have none.
Questions about health in St. Mary's
What is the life expectancy in St. Mary's?
Women in St. Mary's’ region live to 80.9 on average and men to 76.6, Statistics Canada’s 2022/2024 estimate.
How is St. Mary's’ Health Grade worked out?
It will once Canada’s single grading run is done, measured on the region’s survey and life expectancy and on how far St. Mary's’ homes are from a hospital, against the typical Canadian town.
How far is St. Mary's from a hospital?
Beyond the hospital, the average home in St. Mary's is 14 km from a pharmacy; clinics are too sparsely listed in the province to say.
How healthy is St. Mary's?
All four of the region’s figures sit on the less healthy side of the typical Canadian town’s. Chronic conditions there average 21% across arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure.
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).