Health in Dundalk · CCHS 2023/2024, Statistics Canada
Smoking runs high around Dundalk: 17% of adults, the typical Canadian town 12%
Across the region, 48% of adults say their health is very good or excellent; Ontario as a whole reaches 51%. Closer to home, a hospital is 19 km from the average resident of Dundalk, further than the usual 3.7 km. Health gives Dundalk a grade of C, #791 of 866 in Ontario and #2,274 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
For 0% of homes in Dundalk the nearest hospital is over 30 km off; from the town’s centre of population it is 22 km. 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
Dundalk 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 (48%)Better than 24% of Canadian towns
Chronic conditions (17%)Better than 54% of Canadian towns
Smokers (17%)Better than 17% of Canadian towns
Life expectancy (81.3)Better than 61% of Canadian towns
Distance to a hospital (19 km)Better than 28% 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: #791 of 866 in Ontario and #2,274 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
From Dundalk, a hospital is 19 km away on average
Straight-line distances from each part of Dundalk, weighted by who lives there.
Hospital
19 km
residents’ average distance
the typical Canadian town: 3.7 km
Clinic
16 km
community health centre or clinic, residents’ average
Pharmacy
7.2 km
residents’ average distance
0.4 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
Residents of Dundalk 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.
Life expectancy close to where deprivation puts it, a shade under
These are health regions, 102 of them, not towns: the survey and life expectancy are published that way, so the dot for Dundalk’s region, on the line, stands for every town in it.
Situational vulnerability: residents’ average quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprivedLife expectancy at birth (years)
Canada’s 102 health regions show life expectancy dropping as deprivation climbs (correlation −0.83); a region scored 2.8 would be expected to reach 81.7 years, and Dundalk’s region is close, at 81.3. Its 10 closest matches on deprivation lean shorter-lived: 6 of them below it, a median of 81.1.
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
25% of the region’s adults have high blood pressure and 9% diabetes
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
25%
Arthritis
27%
Diabetes
9%
Obese (self-reported)
37%
Mood disorder
14%
Anxiety disorder
12%
Habits · 2023/2024
Smoke daily or now and then
16%
Smoke every day
14%
Heavy drinking
23%
Ontario
Obesity runs higher than in the province, at 37% of adults against 30% for Ontario. Heavy drinking runs above the province, 23% to 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
How the 34 health regions in Ontario compare on life expectancy
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.
81.3
years at birth, 2022/2024
21.1
more years expected at 65
13th
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
Life expectancy in Ontario runs from 73.7 to 86.3; this region sits 13th of the 34.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
Residential instability2.5
Economic dependency2.8
Ethno-cultural composition3.1
Situational vulnerability3.8
Statistics Canada scores every small area from 1 to 5 on each dimension; Dundalk’s 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
Fewer people rate their health highly here than in Ontario: 46% 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
46%
Health fair or poor
16%
Mental health very good or excellent
49%
Mental health fair or poor
14%
Most days quite a bit stressful
23%
Strong sense of belonging
71%
Satisfied with life
89%
Ontario
Neither ahead nor behind Ontario on mental health (49% to 51%), the region has 23% of adults stressed most days.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Towns its size
Further from a hospital than most towns its size: Dundalk comes 39th of 40
The 40 Canadian towns nearest its population (11,365 to 11,810 people), nearest a hospital first; their median is 3.0 km.
Across a regional line, Melancthon has its own figures: life expectancy 82.4, against 81.3 here. Residents of Melancthon live further from a hospital, at 29 km against 19 km in Dundalk.
How to read these numbers
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.
•
Regional figures. Every place in the health region carries the same survey and life-expectancy figures; what is measured for Dundalk itself is the trip to care.
•
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.
•
Who the survey asks. Not everyone is in the survey’s sample: reserves, the Canadian Forces, institutions and two northern Québec regions are left out.
•
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.
•
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 Dundalk
How far is Dundalk from a hospital?
In a straight line from where people in Dundalk live: 16 km to a clinic, 7.2 km to a pharmacy.
How is Dundalk’s Health Grade worked out?
Not so far; the grade arrives with Canada’s grading run and will set the region’s figures, plus Dundalk’s own distance to care, against the typical Canadian town.
How healthy is Dundalk?
Most of the region’s figures sit on the less healthy side of the typical Canadian town’s, though not all. Its chronic-condition figure, age-standardised, is 17%.
What is the life expectancy in Dundalk?
Life expectancy comes by health region: 83.6 for women, 78.9 for men around Dundalk (2022/2024).
Photo: The Silverliner · CC BY-SA 3.0