Photo: Nova Scotia Archives · Public domainSmoking runs high around Yarmouth: 19% of adults, the typical Canadian town 12%
Adults here are less upbeat about their health than the province: 44% very good or excellent, against 48% in Nova Scotia. The town’s own part is the trip to care, and Yarmouth is well placed: 1.8 km to a hospital on average, against 3.7 km typical. The Health grade for Yarmouth is C−, #43 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #2,389 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Yarmouth
Self-rated health runs low
Even once age is allowed for, 7.4 points fewer adults here call their health very good or excellent than in the typical town’s region (42% as answered). Health survey ↓
More chronic 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 ↓
A region where lives run shorter
Life expectancy in the region around Yarmouth 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
For a deprivation score of 3.9, the trend across regions gives 77.8 years of life; Yarmouth’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.
Yarmouth 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: #43 of 88 in Nova Scotia and #2,389 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.
Longer lives than deprivation would give: 2.2 years ahead of the trend
The comparison runs between 102 health regions, each shared by its towns; Yarmouth’s region’s dot is above the line.
Use the deprivation index alone and Yarmouth’s region, at 3.9, should live about 77.8 years, the trend through 102 regions (correlation −0.83), and it reaches 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%
The survey’s answers for the region as given, each beside the province’s (the tick).
Share of adults, as answered · 2023/2024
Mental wellbeing sits at the provincial level, 47% very good or excellent against 48% for Nova Scotia; stress is a daily matter for 21%.
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
Obesity tracks the province: 40% of adults here, 39% across 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
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
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
The index is context and never graded: it describes Yarmouth’s own areas, averaged over residents, on each of its four dimensions.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
The nearest hospital is 1.8 km from the average home in Yarmouth
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Yarmouth’s own, not the region’s.
Yarmouth is closer in than the provincial norm of 9.2 km in Nova Scotia, and than the typical Canadian town at 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: Yarmouth comes 11th of 40
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 6,991 to 7,277 people, median 4.0 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Raleigh ON B | 7,113 | 0.9 km | 53% |
| 2 | Inglewood AB B+ | 7,167 | 1.1 km | 51% |
| 3 | La Sarre QC B | 7,199 | 1.2 km | 57% |
| 9 | Merritt BC C+ | 7,190 | 1.7 km | 48% |
| 10 | Sherbrooke AB B+ | 7,131 | 1.7 km | 51% |
| 11 | Yarmouth NS C− | 7,129 | 1.8 km | 44% |
| 12 | Vanier South ON A+ | 7,259 | 2.0 km | 56% |
| 13 | North River Heights MB B+ | 7,228 | 2.0 km | 52% |
| 40 | Algoma, Unorganized, North Part ON D− | 7,008 | 25 km | 46% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Yarmouth
The places around, with the distance to a hospital and their regions’ figures. Tap a town for its health page.
The neighbours all sit in Yarmouth’s health region, which is why their regional columns are identical. Residents of Argyle live further from a hospital, at 23 km against 1.8 km in Yarmouth.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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.
- 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.
- Regional figures. Every place in the health region carries the same survey and life-expectancy figures; what is measured for Yarmouth itself is the trip to care.
- 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. Standardising for age lets a retirement region and a young one be set side by side; the charts keep the raw answers, the grade the standardised ones.
- 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 Yarmouth
How healthy is Yarmouth?
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 Yarmouth?
Statistics Canada publishes it for Yarmouth’s health region only: 82.5 years for women and 77.6 for men (2022/2024).
How is Yarmouth’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 Yarmouth’s homes are from a hospital, against the typical Canadian town.
How far is Yarmouth from a hospital?
Residents of Yarmouth have a pharmacy 0.8 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).