Photo: P199 · Public domainMore smokers around Chalk River: 16% of adults, where the typical Canadian town has 12%
About as many adults call their health very good or excellent here as across Ontario, 50% against 51%. For Chalk River itself the measure is access, and it lags: 7.6 km to the nearest hospital, where 3.7 km is typical. Health gives Chalk River a grade of C+, #771 of 866 in Ontario and #2,229 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Chalk River
Long-term conditions run high
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 10% diabetes. Conditions and habits ↓
More years than its deprivation would give
Deprivation alone, a score of 3.4, would put Chalk River’s region near 79.2 years; it reaches 81.0. For its deprivation ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Chalk River 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: #771 of 866 in Ontario and #2,229 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.
The region lives 1.8 years longer than its deprivation predicts
These are health regions, 102 of them, not towns: the survey and life expectancy are published that way, so the dot for Chalk River’s region, above the line, stands for every town in it.
Measured against 102 regions, more deprivation means shorter lives, and steadily so (correlation −0.83). Chalk River’s region, at 3.4, outlives the trend’s 79.2 years with 81.0. It outlives 9 of the 10 regions nearest it on the index, whose median is 79.1 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.
27% of the region’s adults have high blood pressure and 10% diabetes
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
At 40%, self-reported obesity is above Ontario’s 30%. Heavy drinking is commoner too (26% against 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 nearest hospital is 7.6 km from the average home in Chalk River
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Chalk River’s own, not the region’s.
Residents of Chalk River travel further than most of the province: the typical town in Ontario is 3.3 km from a hospital, the typical Canadian town 3.7 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.
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
Life expectancy in Ontario runs from 73.7 to 86.3; this region sits 18th of the 34.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
Higher means more deprived: the bars average the quintiles of the areas Chalk River’s residents live in, and none of them counts toward Health.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
48% 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 beats Ontario as well: 55% very good or excellent to 51%, with 21% facing stressful days.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Among 40 towns its size, Chalk River is 22nd nearest a hospital
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 3,100 to 3,196 people, median 7.4 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Blakeley ON B+ | 3,151 | 0.4 km | 53% |
| 2 | Cedar Hill ON A | 3,190 | 0.6 km | 53% |
| 3 | Ainslie Wood East ON B | 3,112 | 0.9 km | 53% |
| 20 | Clermont QC A+ | 3,117 | 7.2 km | 62% |
| 21 | Adelaide-Metcalfe ON B+ | 3,196 | 7.5 km | 52% |
| 22 | Chalk River ON C+ | 3,147 | 7.6 km | 50% |
| 23 | French River / Rivière des Français ON C | 3,178 | 8.2 km | 51% |
| 24 | Mont-Saint-Grégoire QC A | 3,158 | 8.9 km | 55% |
| 40 | Houston BC D− | 3,114 | 54 km | 42% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Chalk River
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chalk River | 7.6 km | 50% | 81.0 | C+ |
| Deep River 7.7 km | 1.8 km | 50% | 81.0 | C+ |
Around Chalk River the health region doesn’t change, so the only column that moves is the distance to a hospital. Deep River is the closest to care, 1.8 km to Chalk River’s 7.6 km.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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.
- Deprivation is context. Statistics Canada’s 2021 deprivation index describes the town’s own areas for context only, with no index for the territories.
- 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. Only the distances on this page belong to Chalk River alone, because the health survey and life expectancy come for the whole health region.
- 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.
Questions about health in Chalk River
How is Chalk River’s Health Grade worked out?
No letter yet for Chalk River: Canada is graded in one run, and Health will then compare its region and its access to care with the typical Canadian town.
How healthy is Chalk River?
All four of the region’s figures sit on the less healthy side of the typical Canadian town’s. Chronic conditions there average 19% across arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure.
How far is Chalk River from a hospital?
A clinic is 8.1 km from the average resident of Chalk River and a pharmacy 7.9 km, as the crow flies.
What is the life expectancy in Chalk River?
There is no figure for Chalk River alone; its health region’s is 83.0 for women and 78.7 for men in 2022/2024.
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).