Health in Powassan · CCHS 2023/2024, Statistics Canada
On health, Powassan falls short of 92% of Canadian towns
Across the region, 47% of adults say their health is very good or excellent; Ontario as a whole reaches 51%. The town’s own part is the trip to care, and Powassan’s is long: 30 km to a hospital on average, against 3.7 km typical. Health gives Powassan a grade of D, #861 of 866 in Ontario and #2,533 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
Ontario: 51% · Area-wide: very good or excellent health, chronic conditions, smokers and life expectancy, counted over the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit
Chronic conditions
19%
arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure: average share
The age-standardised smoking rate around Powassan is well above the typical town’s; 14% of adults are daily smokers. Conditions and habits ↓
Far from a hospital
Distance is Powassan’s own health question: 29% of residents live beyond 30 km of a hospital, and the trip from its centre is 29 km. Getting care ↓
Pharmacies far off
From the average home in Powassan, a pharmacy is 16 km away, a longer trip than most Canadians make for medicine. Getting care ↓
Beating its deprivation on life expectancy
Deprivation alone, a score of 3.7, would put Powassan’s region near 78.2 years; it reaches 80.0. For its deprivation ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Health Grade
Powassan grades D 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 (47%)Better than 22% of Canadian towns
Chronic conditions (19%)Better than 25% of Canadian towns
Smokers (18%)Better than 6% of Canadian towns
Life expectancy (80.0)Better than 41% of Canadian towns
Distance to a hospital (30 km)Better than 10% 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: #861 of 866 in Ontario and #2,533 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
27% of the region’s adults have high blood pressure and 9.7% 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
27%
Arthritis
29%
Diabetes
9.7%
Obese (self-reported)
36%
Mood disorder
14%
Anxiety disorder
17%
Habits · 2023/2024
Smoke daily or now and then
18%
Smoke every day
14%
Heavy drinking
24%
Ontario
Self-reported obesity, 36%, tops Ontario (30%). More adults drink heavily, 24% to the province’s 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.
Getting care
From Powassan, a hospital is 30 km away on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Powassan’s own, not the region’s.
Hospital
30 km
residents’ average distance
the typical Canadian town: 3.7 km
Clinic
3.6 km
community health centre or clinic, residents’ average
Pharmacy
16 km
residents’ average distance
0.0 within 3 km of a typical home
More than 30 km from a hospital
29%
share of residents
Emergency
911
police, fire, ambulance; 811 for health advice in most provinces
Powassan is further out than the provincial norm of 3.3 km in Ontario, and than the typical Canadian town at 3.7 km.
Deprivation predicts less: the region outlives the trend by 1.8 years
Compared region with region (102 health regions, each figure shared by all its towns); Powassan’s region is above the line.
Situational vulnerability: residents’ average quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprivedLife expectancy at birth (years)
Measured against 102 regions, more deprivation means shorter lives, and steadily so (correlation −0.83). Powassan’s region, at 3.7, outlives the trend’s 78.2 years with 80.0. The 10 regions scored most like it mostly do worse (9 of 10), with a median of 78.2.
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.
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.
80.0
years at birth, 2022/2024
20.2
more years expected at 65
24th
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
The region comes 24th of 34 in Ontario, where life expectancy runs from 73.7 to 86.3 years.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
Residential instability2.5
Economic dependency4.4
Ethno-cultural composition1.5
Situational vulnerability3.0
Context only: each bar is the residents’ average quintile on one dimension of Statistics Canada’s index, for Powassan’s own areas.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
Health survey
Self-rated health trails Ontario: 46% very good or excellent, against 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
46%
Health fair or poor
20%
Mental health very good or excellent
49%
Mental health fair or poor
20%
Most days quite a bit stressful
25%
Strong sense of belonging
61%
Satisfied with life
81%
Ontario
About as many adults report very good or excellent mental health as across Ontario (49% against 51%), while 25% 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
Further from a hospital than most towns its size: Powassan comes 39th of 40
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 3,606 to 3,710 people, median 5.2 km.
One health region covers Powassan and every place in the table, so the survey and life-expectancy columns read the same. Residents of Callander live nearer a hospital, at 15 km against 30 km in Powassan.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
•
Regional figures. Statistics Canada reports the survey and life expectancy by health region, not by town: Powassan shares them with its neighbours, while the distances are measured for it alone.
•
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.
•
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.
•
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. Statistics Canada’s 2021 deprivation index describes the town’s own areas for context only, with no index for the territories.
•
Adjusted for age. Because older people report more illness, the grade uses age-standardised shares; the charts above show the unadjusted answers.
Questions about health in Powassan
How far is Powassan from a hospital?
A clinic is 3.6 km from the average resident of Powassan and a pharmacy 16 km, as the crow flies.
How is Powassan’s Health Grade worked out?
Not so far; the grade arrives with Canada’s grading run and will set the region’s figures, plus Powassan’s own distance to care, against the typical Canadian town.
How healthy is Powassan?
All four of the region’s figures sit on the less healthy side of the typical Canadian town’s. Chronic conditions there average 19% across arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure.
What is the life expectancy in Powassan?
Life expectancy comes by health region: 82.6 for women, 77.6 for men around Powassan (2022/2024).
Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 4.0