Health in Kitchener · CCHS 2023/2024, Statistics Canada
Around Kitchener, 53% of adults call their health very good or excellent
Women in the region live to 84.9 and men to 80.7, 82.8 years taken together (2022/2024). The town’s own part is the trip to care, and Kitchener is well placed: 2.4 km to a hospital on average, against 3.7 km typical. The region has fewer smokers than Ontario, 9% of adults to 11%.
Kitchener’s region sits 1.3 years above the typical Canadian town, and those reaching 65 have 21.2 years ahead (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
Pharmacies on every corner
With 14 pharmacies within 3 km of the average home and the nearest 0.7 km off, Kitchener is well served for prescriptions. Getting care ↓
From Statistics Canada: the health survey and life expectancy for the health region, the deprivation index for the town; distances from the healthcare facilities database and OpenStreetMap.
Health Grade
No Health grade for Kitchener yet
The inputs, each beside the typical one of Canadian towns: four for the health region, one for the town itself.
53%
very good or excellent health, region (typical town 52%)
16%
chronic conditions, region (typical town 17%)
9%
smokers, region (typical town 12%)
82.8
life expectancy, region (typical town 81.5)
2.4 km
to a hospital, town’s residents (typical town 3.7 km)
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.
The wider area
How the 34 health regions in Ontario compare on life expectancy
Regional life expectancy in Ontario, then the town’s place on the national deprivation index.
82.8
years at birth, 2022/2024
21.2
more years expected at 65
6th
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
Of the 34 health regions in Ontario, 6th place goes to this one, between a low of 73.7 and a high of 86.3.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
Residential instability3.4
Economic dependency2.4
Ethno-cultural composition4.2
Situational vulnerability2.7
Context only: each bar is the residents’ average quintile on one dimension of Statistics Canada’s index, for Kitchener’s own areas.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
Getting care
From Kitchener, a hospital is 2.4 km away on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Kitchener’s own, not the region’s.
Hospital
2.4 km
residents’ average distance
the typical Canadian town: 3.7 km
Clinic
2.1 km
community health centre or clinic, residents’ average
Pharmacy
0.7 km
residents’ average distance
14 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
Against 3.3 km for the typical town in Ontario and 3.7 km for the typical Canadian town, Kitchener sits near the middle.
Regions, not towns, with every town in a region sharing its dot: of the 102, the marked one, Kitchener’s, follows the trend.
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 Kitchener belongs to lives about as long as its score of 2.6 predicts: 82.8 years, the trend 82.5. Narrow the field to the 10 regions most like it on deprivation and it still beats 7, with 82.5 years in the middle.
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 (17%) 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
17%
Arthritis
15%
Diabetes
8%
Obese (self-reported)
33%
Mood disorder
14%
Anxiety disorder
15%
Habits · 2023/2024
Smoke daily or now and then
8.9%
Smoke every day
6.2%
Heavy drinking
16%
Ontario
More adults report obesity than across Ontario: 33%, the province 30%.
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.
Health survey
Self-rated health beats Ontario: 55% 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
55%
Health fair or poor
15%
Mental health very good or excellent
52%
Mental health fair or poor
19%
Most days quite a bit stressful
23%
Strong sense of belonging
56%
Satisfied with life
80%
Ontario
Asked about their mental health, 52% of adults here said very good or excellent; across Ontario it was 51%, and 23% reported most days stressful.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Neighbours
Health in the places around Kitchener
Nearby places: distance to a hospital and each one’s regional figures. Tap a town for its health page.
Same region, same survey: Kitchener’s neighbours differ only in how far they are from a hospital.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
•
Adjusted for age. Because older people report more illness, the grade uses age-standardised shares; the charts above show the unadjusted answers.
•
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.
•
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.
•
Regional figures. Only the distances on this page belong to Kitchener alone, because the health survey and life expectancy come for the whole health region.
•
Who the survey asks. Not everyone is in the survey’s sample: reserves, the Canadian Forces, institutions and two northern Québec regions are left out.
•
Deprivation is context. None of the four deprivation scores enters the grade; they come from the 2021 index, which skips the territories.
Questions about health in Kitchener
What is the life expectancy in Kitchener?
For the health region that includes Kitchener, women can expect 84.9 years and men 80.7 (2022/2024).
Does Kitchener have a Health grade?
It will once Canada’s single grading run is done, measured on the region’s survey and life expectancy and on how far Kitchener’s homes are from a hospital, against the typical Canadian town.
How healthy is Kitchener?
Self-rated health, chronic conditions, smoking and life expectancy all come out ahead of the typical Canadian town. Its chronic-condition figure, age-standardised, is 16%.
How far is Kitchener from a hospital?
A clinic is 2.1 km from the average resident of Kitchener and a pharmacy 0.7 km, as the crow flies.
Photo: Municipal Affairs and Housing · CC BY 2.0