Health in Athens · CCHS 2023/2024, Statistics Canada
51% of adults around Athens rate their health very good or excellent
Women in the region live to 83.3 and men to 79.2, 81.2 years taken together (2022/2024). The town’s own part is the trip to care, and Athens’ is long: 14 km to a hospital on average, against 3.7 km typical. Health gives Athens a grade of C+, #715 of 866 in Ontario and #2,115 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
For 0% of homes in Athens the nearest hospital is over 30 km off; from the town’s centre of population it is 15 km. Getting care ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Health Grade
Athens 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.
Very good or excellent health (51%)Better than 44% of Canadian towns
Chronic conditions (18%)Better than 47% of Canadian towns
Smokers (14%)Better than 39% of Canadian towns
Life expectancy (81.2)Better than 58% of Canadian towns
Distance to a hospital (14 km)Better than 42% of Canadian towns
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: #715 of 866 in Ontario and #2,115 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.
Getting care
The nearest hospital is 14 km from the average home in Athens
Straight-line distances from each part of Athens, weighted by who lives there.
Hospital
14 km
residents’ average distance
the typical Canadian town: 3.7 km
Clinic
19 km
community health centre or clinic, residents’ average
Pharmacy
3.2 km
residents’ average distance
0.5 within 3 km of a typical home
More than 30 km from a hospital
0%
share of residents
Emergency
911
police, fire, ambulance; 811 for health advice in most provinces
From Athens that is further than the 3.3 km of the typical town in Ontario, and the 3.7 km of the typical Canadian town.
Deprivation all but predicts the region’s life expectancy, which falls just short of the trend
One dot per health region, 102 in all, since life expectancy and the index are published for regions; Athens’ dot is marked, close to the line.
Situational vulnerability: residents’ average quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprivedLife expectancy at birth (years)
Placed among 102 regions by deprivation (correlation −0.83), the region Athens belongs to lives about as long as its score of 2.9 predicts: 81.2 years, the trend 81.3. Half the 10 regions scored most like it do better (4) and half worse (4), around a median of 81.2.
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.
Conditions and habits
In the region, high blood pressure (24%) and diabetes (7.6%)
Long-term conditions and habits as the region’s adults reported them; the tick marks the province.
Conditions and weight · 2023/2024
High blood pressure
24%
Arthritis
34%
Diabetes
7.6%
Obese (self-reported)
38%
Mood disorder
15%
Anxiety disorder
18%
Habits · 2023/2024
Smoke daily or now and then
14%
Smoke every day
11%
Heavy drinking
21%
Ontario
More adults report obesity than across Ontario: 38%, the province 30%. At 21%, heavy drinking beats the provincial 17%.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (table 13-10-0972), as published, not adjusted for age; obesity from reported height and weight. The anxiety disorder figure is the 2021/2022 estimate: Statistics Canada found the latest too unreliable to publish here.
The wider area
Life expectancy across the 34 health regions in Ontario
What Statistics Canada publishes above the town: life expectancy for each health region in Ontario, and the deprivation index for the town’s own areas.
81.2
years at birth, 2022/2024
20.5
more years expected at 65
15th
longest of 34 regions in Ontario
Life expectancy at birth by health region · 2022/2024
York Regional Health Unit86.3
Peel Regional Health Unit85.3
Halton Regional Health Unit84.9
City of Toronto Health Unit84.7
City of Ottawa Health Unit83.7
Waterloo Health Unit82.8
Durham Regional Health Unit82.6
Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Health Unit82.4
Middlesex-London Health Unit81.9
Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Health Unit81.8
Huron Perth Health Unit81.7
Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit81.5
Grey Bruce Health Unit81.3
Windsor-Essex County Health Unit81.3
City of Hamilton Health Unit81.2
Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit81.2
Niagara Regional Area Health Unit81.2
Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit81.0
Renfrew County and District Health Unit81.0
The Eastern Ontario Health Unit81.0
Oxford Elgin St. Thomas Health Unit80.6
Peterborough County—City Health Unit80.5
Brant County Health Unit80.4
Lambton Health Unit80.0
North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit80.0
Hastings and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit79.8
Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit79.6
Sudbury and District Health Unit79.1
Chatham-Kent Health Unit78.6
The District of Algoma Health Unit77.9
Porcupine Health Unit77.3
Timiskaming Health Unit77.0
Thunder Bay District Health Unit76.5
Northwestern Health Unit73.7
Ranked 15th of 34 in Ontario: the regions span 73.7 to 86.3 years at birth.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
Residential instability2.1
Economic dependency4.1
Ethno-cultural composition1.5
Situational vulnerability2.6
Statistics Canada scores every small area from 1 to 5 on each dimension; Athens’ 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.
Health survey
Self-rated health much as in Ontario: 49% to 51%
The survey’s answers for the region as given, each beside the province’s (the tick).
Share of adults, as answered · 2023/2024
Health very good or excellent
49%
Health fair or poor
20%
Mental health very good or excellent
56%
Mental health fair or poor
15%
Most days quite a bit stressful
22%
Strong sense of belonging
65%
Satisfied with life
86%
Ontario
More adults here report very good or excellent mental health than across Ontario (56% against 51%), while 22% call most days stressful.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Towns its size
Athens is 31st of 40 towns its size for nearness to a hospital
The 40 Canadian towns nearest its population (3,030 to 3,127 people), nearest a hospital first; their median is 4.0 km.
The table’s survey and life-expectancy columns are one region’s, Athens’; read across for the hospital trip.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
•
Regional figures. The survey figures and life expectancy are published for the health region, so every town in it shares them and only the distances are Athens’ own.
•
Deprivation is context. None of the four deprivation scores enters the grade; they come from the 2021 index, which skips the territories.
•
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.
•
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.
•
Adjusted for age. The grade’s three survey shares are age-standardised to Canada’s adults, so an older region isn’t marked down for age alone, while the survey charts show answers as given.
Questions about health in Athens
How is Athens’ 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 Athens’ homes are from a hospital, against the typical Canadian town.
How far is Athens from a hospital?
Residents of Athens have a clinic 19 km away on average and a pharmacy 3.2 km away, in straight lines.
How healthy is Athens?
All four of the region’s figures sit on the less healthy side of the typical Canadian town’s. The three chronic conditions the grade counts average 18% of adults.
What is the life expectancy in Athens?
Statistics Canada publishes it for Athens’ health region only: 83.3 years for women and 79.2 for men (2022/2024).
Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 3.0