Photo: Joe Mabel (on Flickr as Joe Mabel from Seattle, US) · CC BY-SA 3.0Very good or excellent health for 50% of adults in Oshawa’s health region
For 2022/2024, the region’s figure is 82.6 years at birth, 84.7 for women and 80.5 for men. What sets Oshawa apart within its region is distance, and at 2.9 km to a hospital it is ordinary (3.7 km typical). Oshawa grades B+ for health, #515 of 866 in Ontario and #1,559 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Oshawa
Longer lives in the region
Life expectancy in the region around Oshawa runs 1.1 years ahead of the typical Canadian town’s, and at 65 people can expect 21.0 more years (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
A heavier load of illness
For its ages, the region carries more long-term illness than most: high blood pressure for 23% of adults, diabetes for 10%. Conditions and habits ↓
Pharmacies on every corner
A typical home in Oshawa has 9.8 pharmacies within 3 km, the nearest 0.9 km away. 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.
Oshawa 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.
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: #515 of 866 in Ontario and #1,559 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.
Life expectancy across the 34 health regions in Ontario
Regional life expectancy in Ontario, then the town’s place on the national deprivation index.
Life expectancy at birth by health region · 2022/2024
Among the 34 regions in Ontario, from 73.7 to 86.3 years, this one is 7th.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
Context only: each bar is the residents’ average quintile on one dimension of Statistics Canada’s index, for Oshawa’s own areas.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
In the region, high blood pressure (23%) and diabetes (10%)
What the survey finds on conditions, weight and habits for the region, the province as the tick.
Conditions and weight · 2023/2024
Habits · 2023/2024
Obesity runs higher than in the province, at 36% of adults against 30% for Ontario.
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 nearest hospital is 2.9 km from the average home in Oshawa
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Oshawa’s own, not the region’s.
That is close to the 3.3 km of the typical town in Ontario (the typical Canadian town: 3.7 km), as Oshawa goes.
Hospitals and clinics: Statistics Canada, Open Database of Healthcare Facilities. Pharmacies: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Straight-line distances from each dissemination area, weighted by its 2021 population.
Life expectancy close to where deprivation puts it, a shade under
Regions, not towns, with every town in a region sharing its dot: of the 102, the marked one, Oshawa’s, follows the trend.
Canada’s 102 health regions show life expectancy dropping as deprivation climbs (correlation −0.83); a region scored 2.5 would be expected to reach 82.8 years, and Oshawa’s region is close, at 82.6. The 10 regions closest to it on the index split evenly around it, 5 above and 5 below; their median is 82.7 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.
Self-rated health much as in Ontario: 50% to 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
The region’s 52% in very good or excellent mental health is within reach of Ontario’s 51%, with 24% reporting stressful days.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Among 40 towns its size, Oshawa is 6th nearest a hospital
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 105,925 to 243,107 people, median 3.8 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | St. Catharines ON C+ | 153,865 | 2.6 km | 49% |
| 2 | Niagara Falls ON C+ | 113,983 | 2.7 km | 49% |
| 3 | Saanich BC A+ | 126,011 | 2.7 km | 55% |
| 4 | Milton ON A | 157,345 | 2.8 km | 54% |
| 5 | Richmond BC A | 239,584 | 2.8 km | 48% |
| 6 | Oshawa ON B+ | 213,592 | 2.9 km | 50% |
| 7 | Coquitlam BC A | 173,599 | 2.9 km | 48% |
| 8 | St. John's NL B− | 128,693 | 3.0 km | 54% |
| 40 | Terrebonne QC B+ | 126,872 | 9.7 km | 56% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Oshawa
Nearby places: distance to a hospital and each one’s regional figures. Tap a town for its health page.
| Town | Hospital | Very good health | Life exp. | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oshawa | 2.9 km | 50% | 82.6 | B+ |
| Whitby 7.1 km | 5.1 km | 50% | 82.6 | B |
| Bowmanville 13 km | 4.9 km | 50% | 82.6 | B |
| Ajax 15 km | 3.2 km | 50% | 82.6 | B |
Oshawa and all of these places belong to one health region: the regional figures repeat, the hospital distances don’t.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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.
- Deprivation is context. None of the four deprivation scores enters the grade; they come from the 2021 index, which skips the territories.
- Adjusted for age. Because older people report more illness, the grade uses age-standardised shares; the charts above show the unadjusted answers.
- 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 Oshawa’s own.
- 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. 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.
Questions about health in Oshawa
How is Oshawa’s Health Grade worked out?
Not yet: Health will weigh the region’s survey and life expectancy and Oshawa’s distance to a hospital against the typical Canadian town once Canada’s grading run happens.
What is the life expectancy in Oshawa?
For the health region that includes Oshawa, women can expect 84.7 years and men 80.5 (2022/2024).
How healthy is Oshawa?
Taken together the region leans healthier than the typical Canadian town, but the picture is mixed. On arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure, the region’s average share is 19%.
How far is Oshawa from a hospital?
Residents of Oshawa have a clinic 3.3 km away on average and a pharmacy 0.9 km away, in straight lines.
Sources: Statistics Canada, Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (13-10-0972) · Statistics Canada, life expectancy 2022/2024 (13-10-0988) · Statistics Canada, health regions 2023 (82-402-X) · Statistics Canada, Open Database of Healthcare Facilities · pharmacies © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Statistics Canada, Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation 2021. Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).