Photo: JFVoll · CC BY-SA 4.0Only 43% of adults around Brantford call their health very good or excellent, below the typical Canadian town’s 52%
Across the region, life runs to 80.4 years on average: women 82.6, men 78.2, in 2022/2024. For Brantford itself the measure is access: 3.1 km to the nearest hospital, much like the typical 3.7 km. Brantford grades C+ for health, #715 of 866 in Ontario and #2,115 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Brantford
More chronic illness
For its ages, the region carries more long-term illness than most: high blood pressure for 23% of adults, diabetes for 9.6%. Conditions and habits ↓
Life expectancy below the norm
Brantford’s region sits 1.1 years below the typical Canadian town, and those reaching 65 have 19.9 years ahead (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
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.
Brantford 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: #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.
High blood pressure for 23% of adults in the region, diabetes for 9.6%
What the survey finds on conditions, weight and habits for the region, the province as the tick.
Conditions and weight · 2023/2024
Habits · 2023/2024
Self-reported obesity, 38%, tops Ontario (30%).
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.
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.
Life expectancy at birth by health region · 2022/2024
Of the 34 health regions in Ontario, 23rd place goes to this one, between a low of 73.7 and a high of 86.3.
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 Brantford’s own areas.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
Just under the trend for regions as deprived
These are health regions, 102 of them, not towns: the survey and life expectancy are published that way, so the dot for Brantford’s region, on the line, stands for every town in it.
At 3.1 on the index, regions tend to reach 80.6 years (correlation −0.83, 102 regions), and the one Brantford belongs to reaches 80.4. Half the 10 regions scored most like it do better (5) and half worse (5), around a median of 80.3.
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.
Getting to hospital from Brantford: 3.1 km on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Brantford’s own, not the region’s.
Brantford is near the provincial norm, 3.3 km for the typical town in Ontario, with the typical Canadian town at 3.7 km. The centre of population is 1.0 km from a hospital, but spread-out homes take the residents’ average to 3.1 km.
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.
43% in the region call their health very good or excellent, fewer 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
Mental health looks weaker than in the province: 46% rate it very good or excellent, against 51% in Ontario, and 26% find most days quite stressful.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Among 40 towns its size, Brantford is 12th nearest a hospital
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 91,290 to 165,354 people, median 3.6 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Victoria BC A+ | 103,888 | 1.5 km | 55% |
| 2 | New Westminster BC A | 92,124 | 1.8 km | 48% |
| 3 | Airdrie AB A+ | 92,544 | 2.3 km | 56% |
| 10 | Milton ON A | 157,345 | 2.8 km | 54% |
| 11 | St. John's NL B− | 128,693 | 3.0 km | 54% |
| 12 | Brantford ON C+ | 123,521 | 3.1 km | 43% |
| 13 | Ajax ON B | 141,111 | 3.2 km | 50% |
| 14 | Thunder Bay ON C− | 117,671 | 3.2 km | 49% |
| 40 | Terrebonne QC B+ | 126,872 | 9.7 km | 56% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Brantford
Nearby places: distance to a hospital and each one’s regional figures. Tap a town for its health page.
| Town | Hospital | Very good health | Life exp. | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brantford | 3.1 km | 43% | 80.4 | C+ |
| Paris 9.6 km | 7.3 km | 43% | 80.4 | C+ |
| Six Nations (Part) 40 15 km | 11 km | 43% | 80.4 | C+ |
| Lynden 17 km | 14 km | 53% | 81.2 | B− |
Lynden falls in another health region, with a life expectancy of 81.2 against 80.4 here. Lynden is the furthest from care, 14 km to Brantford’s 3.1 km.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Adjusted for age. Because older people report more illness, the grade uses age-standardised shares; the charts above show the unadjusted answers.
- Deprivation is context. The Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation (2021) is context, never graded, and the territories have none.
- What counts as a hospital. Facility locations come from Statistics Canada’s open database; records without coordinates sit at their postal code, and not every hospital has an emergency room.
- Distances are straight lines. Each small census area is measured as the crow flies to the nearest facility and weighted by its 2021 residents, so real trips run longer.
- 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. Every place in the health region carries the same survey and life-expectancy figures; what is measured for Brantford itself is the trip to care.
Questions about health in Brantford
How healthy is Brantford?
More of the region’s survey and life-expectancy figures trail the typical Canadian town than beat it. On arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure, the region’s average share is 20%.
How is Brantford’s Health Grade worked out?
Canada’s grades haven’t been set, so Brantford has none yet; when they are, Health will set its region and its hospital distance against the typical Canadian town.
What is the life expectancy in Brantford?
Women in Brantford’s region live to 82.6 on average and men to 78.2, Statistics Canada’s 2022/2024 estimate.
How far is Brantford from a hospital?
Beyond the hospital, the average home in Brantford is 1.3 km from a clinic and 1.2 km from a pharmacy.
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).