Health in Howick · CCHS 2023/2024, Statistics Canada
Fewer adults feel healthy around Howick: 45% say very good or excellent (52% for the typical Canadian town)
Women in the region live to 83.7 and men to 79.7, 81.7 years taken together (2022/2024). For Howick itself the measure is access, and it lags: 15 km to the nearest hospital, where 3.7 km is typical. The Health grade for Howick is B−, #687 of 866 in Ontario and #2,020 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
For 0% of homes in Howick the nearest hospital is over 30 km off; from the town’s centre of population it is 17 km. Getting care ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Health Grade
Howick 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 (45%)Better than 15% of Canadian towns
Chronic conditions (15%)Better than 66% of Canadian towns
Smokers (12%)Better than 63% of Canadian towns
Life expectancy (81.7)Better than 70% of Canadian towns
Distance to a hospital (15 km)Better than 38% 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: #687 of 866 in Ontario and #2,020 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 Howick, a hospital is 15 km away on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Howick’s own, not the region’s.
Hospital
15 km
residents’ average distance
the typical Canadian town: 3.7 km
Clinic
16 km
community health centre or clinic, residents’ average
Pharmacy
14 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
From Howick that is further than the 3.3 km of the typical town in Ontario, and the 3.7 km of the typical Canadian town.
As long-lived as regions this deprived, if slightly longer
Every town shares its health region’s figures, so this compares 102 regions; the one holding Howick’s lies near the line.
Situational vulnerability: residents’ average quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprivedLife expectancy at birth (years)
More deprivation, shorter lives: that holds across the 102 regions (correlation −0.83), and Howick’s region fits it, 81.7 years at 2.9 against the line’s 81.4. The 10 regions scored most like it mostly do worse (8 of 10), with a median of 81.2.
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
19% of the region’s adults have high blood pressure and 7.1% 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
19%
Arthritis
25%
Diabetes
7.1%
Obese (self-reported)
40%
Mood disorder
12%
Habits · 2023/2024
Smoke daily or now and then
12%
Smoke every day
11%
Heavy drinking
25%
Ontario
Obesity runs higher than in the province, at 40% of adults against 30% for Ontario. Heavy drinking runs above the province, 25% 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 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.
81.7
years at birth, 2022/2024
20.8
more years expected at 65
11th
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 11th of the 34.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
Residential instability2.0
Economic dependency2.4
Ethno-cultural composition2.3
Situational vulnerability3.7
Higher means more deprived: the bars average the quintiles of the areas Howick’s residents live in, and none of them counts toward Health.
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: 44% 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
44%
Health fair or poor
14%
Mental health very good or excellent
47%
Mental health fair or poor
16%
Most days quite a bit stressful
17%
Strong sense of belonging
73%
Satisfied with life
86%
Ontario
Fewer adults here report very good or excellent mental health than across Ontario (47% against 51%), while 17% call 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, Howick is 31st nearest a hospital
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 4,452 to 4,591 people, median 4.3 km.
Not every neighbour shares the region: Palmerston’s life expectancy is 82.4, this region’s 81.7. Wingham is the closest to care, 5.8 km to Howick’s 15 km.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
•
Distances are straight lines. They run from where residents live, not along roads, so they understate a drive; each dissemination area counts by its 2021 population.
•
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.
•
What counts as a hospital. The facilities database merges provincial lists of different vintages; its hospitals include some with no emergency department, and a few are placed by postal code.
•
Deprivation is context. Statistics Canada’s 2021 deprivation index describes the town’s own areas for context only, with no index for the territories.
•
Regional figures. Statistics Canada reports the survey and life expectancy by health region, not by town: Howick shares them with its neighbours, while the distances are measured for it alone.
•
Who the survey asks. The health survey leaves out people living on reserves, full-time Canadian Forces members, people in institutions, and Nunavik and the Cree lands of James Bay.
Questions about health in Howick
How healthy is Howick?
The region does better than the typical Canadian town on most regional measures, with at least one exception. The three chronic conditions the grade counts average 15% of adults.
How far is Howick from a hospital?
Residents of Howick have a clinic 16 km away on average and a pharmacy 14 km away, in straight lines.
How is Howick’s Health Grade worked out?
It will once Canada’s single grading run is done, measured on the region’s survey and life expectancy and on how far Howick’s homes are from a hospital, against the typical Canadian town.
What is the life expectancy in Howick?
Life expectancy comes by health region: 83.7 for women, 79.7 for men around Howick (2022/2024).
Photo: Jfvoll · CC BY-SA 4.0