Health in Barrie · CCHS 2023/2024, Statistics Canada
Around Barrie, 54% of adults call their health very good or excellent
Across the region, life runs to 81.5 years on average: women 83.5, men 79.5, in 2022/2024. Closer to home, a hospital sits 3.8 km from the average resident of Barrie, about the norm of 3.7 km. Health gives Barrie a grade of B+, #471 of 866 in Ontario and #1,193 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
With 5.4 pharmacies within 3 km of the average home and the nearest 1.0 km off, Barrie is well served for prescriptions. Getting care ↓
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.
Health Grade
Barrie grades B+ 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 (54%)Better than 60% of Canadian towns
Chronic conditions (17%)Better than 53% of Canadian towns
Smokers (12%)Better than 77% of Canadian towns
Life expectancy (81.5)Better than 64% of Canadian towns
Distance to a hospital (3.8 km)Better than 76% 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: #471 of 866 in Ontario and #1,193 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
Getting to hospital from Barrie: 3.8 km on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Barrie’s own, not the region’s.
Hospital
3.8 km
residents’ average distance
the typical Canadian town: 3.7 km
Clinic
2.0 km
community health centre or clinic, residents’ average
Pharmacy
1.0 km
residents’ average distance
5.4 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
That is close to the 3.3 km of the typical town in Ontario (the typical Canadian town: 3.7 km), as Barrie goes.
Life expectancy about where the region’s deprivation puts it, a shade above
One dot per health region, 102 in all, since life expectancy and the index are published for regions; Barrie’s dot is marked, close to the line.
Situational vulnerability: residents’ average quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprivedLife expectancy at birth (years)
At 2.8 on the index, regions tend to reach 81.5 years (correlation −0.83, 102 regions), and the one Barrie belongs to reaches 81.5. Most of the 10 regions with the nearest deprivation scores fall short of it (8 of 10, median 81.2 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.
Conditions and habits
20% of the region’s adults have high blood pressure and 8% diabetes
What the survey finds on conditions, weight and habits for the region, the province as the tick.
Conditions and weight · 2023/2024
High blood pressure
20%
Arthritis
26%
Diabetes
8%
Obese (self-reported)
34%
Mood disorder
13%
Anxiety disorder
13%
Habits · 2023/2024
Smoke daily or now and then
12%
Smoke every day
9.3%
Heavy drinking
20%
Ontario
Self-reported obesity, 34%, tops Ontario (30%). More adults drink heavily, 20% to the province’s 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
Longest and shortest lives among the 34 regions in Ontario
Regional life expectancy in Ontario, then the town’s place on the national deprivation index.
81.5
years at birth, 2022/2024
20.5
more years expected at 65
12th
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
The region comes 12th of 34 in Ontario, where life expectancy runs from 73.7 to 86.3 years.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
Residential instability3.2
Economic dependency2.3
Ethno-cultural composition3.5
Situational vulnerability3.0
Context only: each bar is the residents’ average quintile on one dimension of Statistics Canada’s index, for Barrie’s own areas.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
Health survey
54% in the region call their health very good or excellent, more than in Ontario (51%)
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
Health very good or excellent
54%
Health fair or poor
14%
Mental health very good or excellent
49%
Mental health fair or poor
16%
Most days quite a bit stressful
24%
Strong sense of belonging
63%
Satisfied with life
83%
Ontario
Mental health is no outlier: 49% say very good or excellent (Ontario: 51%) and 24% live with stressful days.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Towns its size
Mid-table for hospital distance among towns its size: Barrie comes 20th of 40
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 105,925 to 243,107 people, median 3.8 km.
Because the health region stops further out than these places, they all carry Barrie’s regional figures. Angus is the furthest from care, 15 km to Barrie’s 3.8 km.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
•
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.
•
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.
•
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 Barrie’s own.
•
Deprivation is context. Statistics Canada’s 2021 deprivation index describes the town’s own areas for context only, with no index for the territories.
•
Who the survey asks. People on reserves and in institutions, full-time military members and the residents of Nunavik and Eeyou Istchee aren’t interviewed by the survey.
•
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.
Questions about health in Barrie
How is Barrie’s Health Grade worked out?
Not yet: Health will weigh the region’s survey and life expectancy and Barrie’s distance to a hospital against the typical Canadian town once Canada’s grading run happens.
How healthy is Barrie?
Taken together the region leans less healthy than the typical Canadian town, but the picture is mixed. On arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure, the region’s average share is 17%.
How far is Barrie from a hospital?
Residents of Barrie have a clinic 2.0 km away on average and a pharmacy 1.0 km away, in straight lines.
What is the life expectancy in Barrie?
Statistics Canada publishes it for Barrie’s health region only: 83.5 years for women and 79.5 for men (2022/2024).
Photo: Duckdave · CC BY-SA 4.0