Health in Durham · CCHS 2023/2024, Statistics Canada
Durham’s health region counts 17% of adults who smoke, above the typical Canadian town’s 12%
The survey puts the region’s share in very good or excellent health at 48%, behind the 51% for Ontario. Closer to home, a hospital is 5.9 km from the average resident of Durham, further than the usual 3.7 km. The Health grade for Durham is C+, #726 of 866 in Ontario and #2,141 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
Ontario: 51% · The very good or excellent health, chronic conditions, smokers and life expectancy numbers here cover the Grey Bruce Health Unit
Chronic conditions
17%
arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure: average share
Ontario: 17%
Smokers
17%
daily or occasional, age-standardised
Ontario: 11%
Life expectancy
81.3
at birth, 2022/2024
women 83.6 · men 78.9
Nearest hospital
5.9 km
residents’ average, straight line
the typical Canadian town: 3.7 km
Health Grade
Durham 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 (5.9 km)Better than 70% 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: #726 of 866 in Ontario and #2,141 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.
For its deprivation
Level with regions as deprived, give or take a few months
These are health regions, 102 of them, not towns: the survey and life expectancy are published that way, so the dot for Durham’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)
Placed among 102 regions by deprivation (correlation −0.83), the region Durham belongs to lives about as long as its score of 2.8 predicts: 81.3 years, the trend 81.7. 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
In the region, high blood pressure (25%) and diabetes (9%)
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
More adults report obesity than across Ontario: 37%, the province 30%. At 23%, 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.
Getting care
From Durham, a hospital is 5.9 km away on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Durham’s own, not the region’s.
Hospital
5.9 km
residents’ average distance
the typical Canadian town: 3.7 km
Clinic
14 km
community health centre or clinic, residents’ average
Pharmacy
11 km
residents’ average distance
0.0 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 Durham 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. The centre of population is 1.1 km from a hospital, but spread-out homes take the residents’ average to 5.9 km.
Durham and all of these places belong to one health region: the regional figures repeat, the hospital distances don’t. Residents of Hanover live nearer a hospital, at 1.3 km against 5.9 km in Durham.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
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Adjusted for age. Because older people report more illness, the grade uses age-standardised shares; the charts above show the unadjusted answers.
•
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.
•
Deprivation is context. None of the four deprivation scores enters the grade; they come from the 2021 index, which skips 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.
•
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.
•
Regional figures. Only the distances on this page belong to Durham alone, because the health survey and life expectancy come for the whole health region.
Questions about health in Durham
How healthy is Durham?
Taken together the region leans less healthy than the typical Canadian town, but the picture is mixed. Its chronic-condition figure, age-standardised, is 17%.
How far is Durham from a hospital?
Residents of Durham have a clinic 14 km away on average and a pharmacy 11 km away, in straight lines.
How is Durham’s Health Grade worked out?
Not so far; the grade arrives with Canada’s grading run and will set the region’s figures, plus Durham’s own distance to care, against the typical Canadian town.
What is the life expectancy in Durham?
Life expectancy comes by health region: 83.6 for women, 78.9 for men around Durham (2022/2024).
Photo: Tabercil · CC BY 3.0