Health in Balfour · CCHS 2023/2024, Statistics Canada
53% of adults around Balfour rate their health very good or excellent
Women in the region live to 83.5 and men to 79.0, 81.2 years taken together (2022/2024). For Balfour itself the measure is access, and it scores well: 1.0 km to the nearest hospital, where 3.7 km is typical. The Health grade for Balfour is B, #524 of 866 in Ontario and #1,612 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
The hospital is close for almost everyone in Balfour: 1.2 km from its centre of population. Getting care ↓
Plenty of pharmacies
A typical home in Balfour has 36 pharmacies within 3 km, the nearest 0.3 km away. Getting care ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Health Grade
Balfour grades B 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 (53%)Better than 58% of Canadian towns
Chronic conditions (17%)Better than 48% of Canadian towns
Smokers (13%)Better than 45% of Canadian towns
Life expectancy (81.2)Better than 58% of Canadian towns
Distance to a hospital (1.0 km)Better than 94% 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: #524 of 866 in Ontario and #1,612 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
The nearest hospital is 1.0 km from the average home in Balfour
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Balfour’s own, not the region’s.
Hospital
1.0 km
residents’ average distance
the typical Canadian town: 3.7 km
Clinic
1.2 km
community health centre or clinic, residents’ average
Pharmacy
0.3 km
residents’ average distance
36 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
Balfour is closer in than the provincial norm of 3.3 km in Ontario, and than the typical Canadian town at 3.7 km.
On the trend for regions as deprived, just over it
Every town shares its health region’s figures, so this compares 102 regions; the one holding Balfour’s lies near the line.
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 Balfour belongs to lives about as long as its score of 3.0 predicts: 81.2 years, the trend 81.0. Even beside regions as deprived, it stands out: 5 of its 10 closest matches fall short, their median 80.9 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 (22%) and diabetes (9.5%)
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
22%
Arthritis
20%
Diabetes
9.5%
Obese (self-reported)
28%
Mood disorder
14%
Anxiety disorder
13%
Habits · 2023/2024
Smoke daily or now and then
13%
Smoke every day
9.4%
Heavy drinking
21%
Ontario
Obesity tracks the province: 28% of adults here, 30% across Ontario. At 21%, 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.
The wider area
Life expectancy across the 34 health regions in Ontario
Regional life expectancy in Ontario, then the town’s place on the national deprivation index.
81.2
years at birth, 2022/2024
20.4
more years expected at 65
15th
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
Ranked 15th 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
Residential instability4.1
Economic dependency2.7
Ethno-cultural composition4.4
Situational vulnerability3.6
The index is context and never graded: it describes Balfour’s own areas, averaged over residents, on each of its four dimensions.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
Health survey
Self-rated health beats Ontario: 54% 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
Health very good or excellent
54%
Health fair or poor
18%
Mental health very good or excellent
52%
Mental health fair or poor
19%
Most days quite a bit stressful
27%
Strong sense of belonging
63%
Satisfied with life
82%
Ontario
Asked about their mental health, 52% of adults here said very good or excellent; across Ontario it was 51%, and 27% reported most days stressful.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Towns its size
Among 40 towns its size, Balfour is 3rd nearest a hospital
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 4,103 to 4,237 people, median 4.7 km.
The neighbours all sit in Balfour’s health region, which is why their regional columns are identical.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
•
Deprivation is context. The Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation (2021) is context, never graded, and the territories have none.
•
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.
•
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.
•
Distances are straight lines. Each small census area is measured as the crow flies to the nearest facility and weighted by its 2021 residents, so real trips run longer.
•
Regional figures. Statistics Canada reports the survey and life expectancy by health region, not by town: Balfour shares them with its neighbours, while the distances are measured for it alone.
•
What counts as a hospital. Facility locations come from Statistics Canada’s open database; records without coordinates sit at their postal code, and not every hospital has an emergency room.
Questions about health in Balfour
How is Balfour’s Health Grade worked out?
Canada’s grades haven’t been set, so Balfour has none yet; when they are, Health will set its region and its hospital distance against the typical Canadian town.
How healthy is Balfour?
The region does worse than the typical Canadian town on most regional measures, with at least one exception. The three chronic conditions the grade counts average 17% of adults.
How far is Balfour from a hospital?
Beyond the hospital, the average home in Balfour is 1.2 km from a clinic and 0.3 km from a pharmacy.
What is the life expectancy in Balfour?
Women in Balfour’s region live to 83.5 on average and men to 79.0, Statistics Canada’s 2022/2024 estimate.
Photo: JFVoll · CC BY-SA 4.0