Photo: bgilliard from St. Catharines, Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0People in Forest’s health region live to 80.0 on average, 1.5 years short of the typical Canadian town
Adults here are less upbeat about their health than the province: 49% very good or excellent, against 51% in Ontario. Measured from where Forest’s residents live, the nearest hospital is 6.8 km away, beyond the typical 3.7 km. Forest grades C+ for health, #737 of 866 in Ontario and #2,163 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Forest
Life expectancy short of what deprivation predicts
Forest’s region falls short of what its deprivation score of 2.8 predicts: 80.0 years against 81.7. For its deprivation ↓
Smoking runs high
Smoking is commoner around Forest than in the typical Canadian town’s region, and 12% of adults smoke every day. Conditions and habits ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Forest 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: #737 of 866 in Ontario and #2,163 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.
Behind regions as deprived by 1.7 years of life
Compared region with region (102 health regions, each figure shared by all its towns); Forest’s region is below the line.
Deprivation accounts for much of the spread between regions (correlation −0.83 over 102), but not for all of Forest’s region’s: 80.0 years where the line expects 81.7 at 2.8. The 10 regions scored most like it mostly do better (8 of 10), with a median of 81.3. Higher incomes, shorter lives: about $83,000 a household, above most regions’, with a life expectancy below most; income and lifespan correlate at only 0.14 across regions.
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.
In the region, high blood pressure (23%) and diabetes (9.4%)
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, 37%, tops Ontario (30%). More adults drink heavily, 24% 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.
From Forest, a hospital is 6.8 km away on average
Straight-line distances from each part of Forest, weighted by who lives there.
From Forest that is further than the 3.3 km of the typical town in Ontario, and the 3.7 km of the typical Canadian town. The centre of population is 14 km from a hospital, but spread-out homes take the residents’ average to 6.8 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.
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.
Life expectancy at birth by health region · 2022/2024
Ranked 24th of 34 in Ontario: the regions span 73.7 to 86.3 years at birth.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
This is the one part of the block measured for Forest itself, and it sets the scene rather than feeding the grade.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
Self-rated health trails Ontario: 48% very good or excellent, against 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
The region’s 51% in very good or excellent mental health is within reach of Ontario’s 51%, with 22% reporting stressful days.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Further from a hospital than most towns its size: Forest comes 33rd of 40
The 40 Canadian towns nearest its population (12,707 to 13,221 people), nearest a hospital first; their median is 2.0 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yonge-Bay Corridor ON A | 12,888 | 0.3 km | 50% |
| 2 | Regent Park ON A | 12,797 | 0.7 km | 50% |
| 3 | Downtown AB B+ | 12,880 | 0.9 km | 51% |
| 31 | Rutherford AB B | 12,808 | 5.0 km | 51% |
| 32 | Aloha Estates BC A | 13,194 | 6.4 km | 50% |
| 33 | Forest ON C+ | 12,962 | 6.8 km | 49% |
| 34 | North Saanich BC A | 12,986 | 6.9 km | 55% |
| 35 | New Springbrook ON B+ | 12,804 | 6.9 km | 49% |
| 40 | Sainte-Julienne QC B | 12,990 | 21 km | 56% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Forest
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forest | 6.8 km | 49% | 80.0 | C+ |
| Kettle Point 44 12 km | 11 km | 49% | 80.0 | C+ |
| Parkhill 15 km | 18 km | 52% | 81.9 | B |
Parkhill falls in another health region, with a life expectancy of 81.9 against 80.0 here. Parkhill is the furthest from care, 18 km to Forest’s 6.8 km.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 Forest’s own.
Questions about health in Forest
How is Forest’s Health Grade worked out?
Not so far; the grade arrives with Canada’s grading run and will set the region’s figures, plus Forest’s own distance to care, against the typical Canadian town.
What is the life expectancy in Forest?
Women in Forest’s region live to 82.2 on average and men to 77.8, Statistics Canada’s 2022/2024 estimate.
How healthy is Forest?
Self-rated health, chronic conditions, smoking and life expectancy all come out behind the typical Canadian town. The three chronic conditions the grade counts average 18% of adults.
How far is Forest from a hospital?
A clinic is 7.8 km from the average resident of Forest and a pharmacy 6.7 km, as the crow flies.
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).