Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Around Truro, 42% rate their health very good or excellent, against 52% for the typical Canadian town
Statistics Canada puts the region’s life expectancy at 79.3, women 81.5 and men 77.1 (2022/2024). What sets Truro apart within its region is a short trip to hospital, 1.5 km for the average resident (3.7 km typical). Truro grades C− for health, #46 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #2,422 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Truro
A region that smokes more
Around Truro, 14% of adults smoke daily, part of a smoking rate higher than most Canadian towns’ regions. Conditions and habits ↓
Life expectancy below the norm
Truro’s region sits 2.2 years below the typical Canadian town, and those reaching 65 have 19.2 years ahead (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
Long-term conditions run high
For its ages, the region carries more long-term illness than most: high blood pressure for 29% of adults, diabetes for 13%. Conditions and habits ↓
A hospital close by
Few Canadian towns live as close to a hospital as Truro; from its centre of population the trip is 1.1 km. Getting care ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Truro 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: #46 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #2,422 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 29% of adults in the region, diabetes for 13%
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
Obesity runs higher than in the province, at 43% 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.
Longest and shortest lives among the 4 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
Life expectancy in Nova Scotia runs from 78.8 to 81.4; this region sits 3rd of the 4.
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; Truro’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.
The nearest hospital is 1.5 km from the average home in Truro
Straight-line distances from each part of Truro, weighted by who lives there.
Residents of Truro 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.
1.4 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 Truro’s region, above the line, stands for every town in it.
Measured against 102 regions, more deprivation means shorter lives, and steadily so (correlation −0.83). Truro’s region, at 3.8, outlives the trend’s 77.9 years with 79.3. Its 10 closest matches on deprivation lean shorter-lived: 7 of them below it, a median of 78.5.
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: 41% to 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 trails Nova Scotia: 44% very good or excellent to 48%, with 24% facing stressful days.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Closer to a hospital than most towns its size: Truro comes 10th of 40
The 40 Canadian towns nearest its population (14,407 to 14,898 people), nearest a hospital first; their median is 2.7 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maizerets QC A+ | 14,571 | 0.5 km | 62% |
| 2 | Saint-Louis QC A | 14,824 | 0.5 km | 54% |
| 3 | Roncesvalles ON A | 14,725 | 0.8 km | 50% |
| 8 | Cooksville NHD (West) ON A− | 14,821 | 1.3 km | 49% |
| 9 | North Battleford SK C | 14,882 | 1.4 km | 46% |
| 10 | Truro NS C− | 14,652 | 1.5 km | 42% |
| 11 | Rivière-Gatineau QC B+ | 14,875 | 1.5 km | 55% |
| 12 | Portage la Prairie MB B | 14,738 | 1.6 km | 51% |
| 40 | Gravenhurst ON B | 14,576 | 16 km | 54% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Truro
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Truro | 1.5 km | 42% | 79.3 | C− |
| Millbrook 27 3.7 km | 2.9 km | 42% | 79.3 | C− |
| Colchester County, Subdivision C 8.0 km | 10 km | 42% | 79.3 | D |
| Colchester County, Subdivision B 9.9 km | 7.8 km | 42% | 79.3 | D |
One health region covers Truro and every place in the table, so the survey and life-expectancy columns read the same. Residents of Colchester County, Subdivision C live further from a hospital, at 10 km against 1.5 km in Truro.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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.
- Deprivation is context. None of the four deprivation scores enters the grade; they come from the 2021 index, which skips the territories.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Regional figures. Only the distances on this page belong to Truro alone, because the health survey and life expectancy come for the whole health region.
Questions about health in Truro
How healthy is Truro?
Self-rated health, chronic conditions, smoking and life expectancy all come out behind the typical Canadian town. The three chronic conditions the grade counts average 21% of adults.
How is Truro’s Health Grade worked out?
No letter yet for Truro: Canada is graded in one run, and Health will then compare its region and its access to care with the typical Canadian town.
What is the life expectancy in Truro?
There is no figure for Truro alone; its health region’s is 81.5 for women and 77.1 for men in 2022/2024.
How far is Truro from a hospital?
For everyday care, Truro’s residents are 0.9 km from a pharmacy on average.
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).