Photo: chester902 · Public domainMore smokers around Wolfville: 19% of adults, where the typical Canadian town has 12%
Adults here are less upbeat about their health than the province: 44% very good or excellent, against 48% in Nova Scotia. What sets Wolfville apart within its region is a short trip to hospital, 1.2 km for the average resident (3.7 km typical). Health gives Wolfville a grade of C−.
What stands out about health in Wolfville
Fewer people feeling well
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
High blood pressure (27%) and diabetes (13%) push the region’s chronic-condition figure above the typical Canadian town’s. Conditions and habits ↓
Shorter lives in the region
Life expectancy in the region around Wolfville runs 1.5 years behind the typical Canadian town’s, and at 65 people can expect 19.7 more years (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
Outliving the trend for its deprivation
At 80.0 years, Wolfville’s region outlives the 77.8 that regions scoring 3.9 on the index typically reach. For its deprivation ↓
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.
Wolfville 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.
Longer-lived than its deprivation suggests, by 2.2 years
Regions, not towns, with every town in a region sharing its dot: of the 102, the marked one, Wolfville’s, lies over the trend.
The line through 102 regions (correlation −0.83) puts a deprivation score of 3.9 at 77.8 years of life; Wolfville’s region does better, at 80.0. No region among the 10 scored most like it does better; they centre on 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%
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 is close to the province’s: 47% rate it very good or excellent, against 48% in Nova Scotia, and 21% find most days quite stressful.
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
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
On weight the region is ordinary for Nova Scotia: 40% report obesity, the province 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
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
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
Context only: each bar is the residents’ average quintile on one dimension of Statistics Canada’s index, for Wolfville’s own areas.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
Getting to hospital from Wolfville: 1.2 km on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Wolfville’s own, not the region’s.
Wolfville is closer in than the provincial norm of 9.2 km in Nova Scotia, and than the typical Canadian town at 3.7 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.
Closer to a hospital than most towns its size: Wolfville comes 7th of 40
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 5,478 to 5,699 people, median 4.3 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Meadow Lake SK C | 5,667 | 0.6 km | 46% |
| 2 | Montcalm MB B+ | 5,676 | 0.8 km | 52% |
| 3 | Bankview AB A+ | 5,610 | 0.8 km | 56% |
| 5 | The Pas MB D | 5,634 | 1.1 km | 40% |
| 6 | Belgravia AB B+ | 5,478 | 1.1 km | 51% |
| 7 | Wolfville NS C− | 5,587 | 1.2 km | 44% |
| 8 | Armstrong BC B+ | 5,643 | 1.2 km | 52% |
| 9 | Island Park-Wellington Village ON A+ | 5,486 | 1.3 km | 56% |
| 40 | Chertsey QC B | 5,678 | 30 km | 56% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Wolfville
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wolfville | 1.2 km | 44% | 80.0 | C− |
| Kings County, Subdivision D 2.7 km | 7.1 km | 44% | 80.0 | C− |
| Kings County, Subdivision B 8.9 km | 5.8 km | 44% | 80.0 | C− |
| Kings County, Subdivision C 11 km | 5.6 km | 44% | 80.0 | C− |
| Kentville 11 km | 1.7 km | 44% | 80.0 | C− |
Because the health region stops further out than these places, they all carry Wolfville’s regional figures. Kings County, Subdivision D is the furthest from care, 7.1 km to Wolfville’s 1.2 km.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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.
- Adjusted for age. Because older people report more illness, the grade uses age-standardised shares; the charts above show the unadjusted answers.
- 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.
- Regional figures. Every place in the health region carries the same survey and life-expectancy figures; what is measured for Wolfville itself is the trip to care.
- 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.
- Deprivation is context. Statistics Canada’s 2021 deprivation index describes the town’s own areas for context only, with no index for the territories.
Questions about health in Wolfville
How healthy is Wolfville?
Self-rated health, chronic conditions, smoking and life expectancy all come out behind the typical Canadian town. Its chronic-condition figure, age-standardised, is 20%.
What is the life expectancy in Wolfville?
Statistics Canada publishes it for Wolfville’s health region only: 82.5 years for women and 77.6 for men (2022/2024).
How is Wolfville’s Health Grade worked out?
Canada’s grades haven’t been set, so Wolfville has none yet; when they are, Health will set its region and its hospital distance against the typical Canadian town.
How far is Wolfville from a hospital?
Residents of Wolfville have a pharmacy 1.0 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).