Health in Hamilton · CCHS 2023/2024, Statistics Canada
Smoking runs high around Hamilton: 18% of adults, the typical Canadian town 12%
The survey puts the region’s share in very good or excellent health at 49%; Ontario as a whole is at 51%. The town’s own part is the trip to care, and Hamilton’s is long: 8.6 km to a hospital on average, against 3.7 km typical. Health gives Hamilton a grade of C+, #753 of 866 in Ontario and #2,197 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
Ontario: 51% · Very good or excellent health, chronic conditions, smokers and life expectancy for the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit
Chronic conditions
17%
arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure: average share
Ontario: 17%
Smokers
18%
daily or occasional, age-standardised
Ontario: 11%
Life expectancy
81.0
at birth, 2022/2024
women 83.0 · men 79.0
Nearest hospital
8.6 km
residents’ average, straight line
the typical Canadian town: 3.7 km
Health Grade
Hamilton 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 (49%)Better than 35% of Canadian towns
Chronic conditions (17%)Better than 51% of Canadian towns
Smokers (18%)Better than 10% of Canadian towns
Life expectancy (81.0)Better than 55% of Canadian towns
Distance to a hospital (8.6 km)Better than 61% 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: #753 of 866 in Ontario and #2,197 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
Life expectancy close to where deprivation puts it, a shade under
Each dot is a health region, not a town, its figures shared by every town in it; Hamilton’s region sits on the trend line through 102 regions.
Situational vulnerability: residents’ average quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprivedLife expectancy at birth (years)
Life expectancy and deprivation move in opposite directions across 102 regions (correlation −0.83); at 2.8, the expected figure is 81.6 years, and Hamilton’s region matches it closely with 81.0. Most of the 10 regions with the nearest deprivation scores outlive it (6 of 10, median 81.2 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.
Conditions and habits
In the region, high blood pressure (28%) and diabetes (8%)
What the survey finds on conditions, weight and habits for the region, the province as the tick.
Conditions and weight · 2023/2024
High blood pressure
28%
Arthritis
31%
Diabetes
8%
Obese (self-reported)
40%
Mood disorder
14%
Anxiety disorder
16%
Habits · 2023/2024
Smoke daily or now and then
18%
Smoke every day
16%
Heavy drinking
22%
Ontario
At 40%, self-reported obesity is above Ontario’s 30%. Heavy drinking is commoner too (22% 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.
Getting care
Getting to hospital from Hamilton: 8.6 km on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Hamilton’s own, not the region’s.
Hospital
8.6 km
residents’ average distance
the typical Canadian town: 3.7 km
Clinic
8.3 km
community health centre or clinic, residents’ average
Pharmacy
8.1 km
residents’ average distance
0.3 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
Compared with 3.3 km for the typical town in Ontario and 3.7 km for the typical Canadian town, Hamilton is on the far side.
The neighbours all sit in Hamilton’s health region, which is why their regional columns are identical. Residents of Alnwick/Haldimand live further from a hospital, at 18 km against 8.6 km in Hamilton.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
•
Regional figures. Statistics Canada reports the survey and life expectancy by health region, not by town: Hamilton shares them with its neighbours, while the distances are measured for it alone.
•
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.
•
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. 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.
•
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.
•
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.
Questions about health in Hamilton
How is Hamilton’s Health Grade worked out?
Canada’s grades haven’t been set, so Hamilton has none yet; when they are, Health will set its region and its hospital distance against the typical Canadian town.
How healthy is Hamilton?
The region trails the typical Canadian town on each of its four survey and life-expectancy figures. Chronic conditions there average 17% across arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure.
How far is Hamilton from a hospital?
Residents of Hamilton have a clinic 8.3 km away on average and a pharmacy 8.1 km away, in straight lines.
What is the life expectancy in Hamilton?
Women in Hamilton’s region live to 83.0 on average and men to 79.0, Statistics Canada’s 2022/2024 estimate.
Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 3.0