Health in Marathon · CCHS 2023/2024, Statistics Canada
Lives run shorter around Marathon: 76.5 years, 5.0 below the typical Canadian town’s region
Across the region, 49% of adults say their health is very good or excellent; Ontario as a whole reaches 51%. For Marathon itself the measure is access, and it scores well: 0.9 km to the nearest hospital, where 3.7 km is typical. The Health grade for Marathon is C, #798 of 866 in Ontario and #2,290 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
Ontario: 51% · Shared with the rest of the Thunder Bay District Health Unit: very good or excellent health, chronic conditions, smokers and life expectancy
Chronic conditions
18%
arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure: average share
The age-standardised smoking rate around Marathon is well above the typical town’s; 13% of adults are daily smokers. Conditions and habits ↓
Life expectancy under the deprivation trend
Marathon’s region falls short of what its deprivation score of 3.8 predicts: 76.5 years against 78.0. For its deprivation ↓
Deprivation runs high
Statistics Canada’s deprivation index places Marathon at 4.4 of 5 for situational vulnerability, close to the top band. The wider area ↓
Near a hospital
The hospital is close for almost everyone in Marathon: 0.7 km from its centre of population. Getting care ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Health Grade
Marathon 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 32% of Canadian towns
Chronic conditions (18%)Better than 38% of Canadian towns
Smokers (17%)Better than 12% of Canadian towns
Life expectancy (76.5)Better than 3% of Canadian towns
Distance to a hospital (0.9 km)Better than 95% 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: #798 of 866 in Ontario and #2,290 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.
Conditions and habits
In the region, high blood pressure (24%) and diabetes (8.8%)
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
24%
Arthritis
24%
Diabetes
8.8%
Obese (self-reported)
41%
Mood disorder
15%
Anxiety disorder
17%
Habits · 2023/2024
Smoke daily or now and then
17%
Smoke every day
13%
Heavy drinking
25%
Ontario
More adults report obesity than across Ontario: 41%, the province 30%. At 25%, 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.
For its deprivation
Deprivation predicts more: the region falls 1.5 years short of the trend
Every town shares its health region’s figures, so this compares 102 regions; the one holding Marathon’s lies below the line.
Situational vulnerability: residents’ average quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprivedLife expectancy at birth (years)
Life expectancy drops as deprivation climbs across Canada’s 102 health regions (correlation −0.83); a score of 3.8 would suggest 78.0 years, but Marathon’s region stops at 76.5. Among the 10 regions with the nearest deprivation scores, every one does better; they centre on 79.2 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.
Getting care
Getting to hospital from Marathon: 0.9 km on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Marathon’s own, not the region’s.
Hospital
0.9 km
residents’ average distance
the typical Canadian town: 3.7 km
Clinic
0.9 km
community health centre or clinic, residents’ average
Pharmacy
1.1 km
residents’ average distance
1.0 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
Residents of Marathon are closer than most of the province: the typical town in Ontario is 3.3 km from a hospital, the typical Canadian town 3.7 km.
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
•
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. Not everyone is in the survey’s sample: reserves, the Canadian Forces, institutions and two northern Québec regions are left out.
•
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.
•
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 Marathon’s own.
•
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.
Questions about health in Marathon
What is the life expectancy in Marathon?
Life expectancy comes by health region: 79.0 for women, 74.1 for men around Marathon (2022/2024).
How is Marathon’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 Marathon’s homes are from a hospital, against the typical Canadian town.
How healthy is Marathon?
The region trails the typical Canadian town on each of its four survey and life-expectancy figures. Chronic conditions there average 18% across arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure.
How far is Marathon from a hospital?
In a straight line from where people in Marathon live: 0.9 km to a clinic, 1.1 km to a pharmacy.
Photo: davestew89 · CC BY 3.0