Health in Prescott · CCHS 2023/2024, Statistics Canada
51% of adults around Prescott rate their health very good or excellent
Statistics Canada puts the region’s life expectancy at 81.2, women 83.3 and men 79.2 (2022/2024). What sets Prescott apart within its region is a longer trip to hospital, 17 km for the average resident (3.7 km typical). Prescott grades C+ for health, #740 of 866 in Ontario and #2,169 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
Ontario: 51% · Measured across the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit: very good or excellent health, chronic conditions, smokers and life expectancy
Chronic conditions
18%
arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure: average share
Residents of Prescott live much further from a hospital than in the typical Canadian town (17 km from its centre of population), and 0% are more than 30 km away. Getting care ↓
Harder circumstances
Statistics Canada’s deprivation index places Prescott at 4.4 of 5 for situational vulnerability, close to the top band. The wider area ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Health Grade
Prescott 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 (51%)Better than 44% of Canadian towns
Chronic conditions (18%)Better than 47% of Canadian towns
Smokers (14%)Better than 39% of Canadian towns
Life expectancy (81.2)Better than 58% of Canadian towns
Distance to a hospital (17 km)Better than 33% 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: #740 of 866 in Ontario and #2,169 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
The nearest hospital is 17 km from the average home in Prescott
Straight-line distances from each part of Prescott, weighted by who lives there.
Hospital
17 km
residents’ average distance
the typical Canadian town: 3.7 km
Clinic
1.0 km
community health centre or clinic, residents’ average
Pharmacy
0.6 km
residents’ average distance
3.0 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
Compared with 3.3 km for the typical town in Ontario and 3.7 km for the typical Canadian town, Prescott is on the far side.
Life expectancy across the 34 health regions in Ontario
What Statistics Canada publishes above the town: life expectancy for each health region in Ontario, and the deprivation index for the town’s own areas.
81.2
years at birth, 2022/2024
20.5
more years expected at 65
15th
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
This region is 15th longest-lived of 34 in Ontario, on a scale from 73.7 to 86.3 years.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
Residential instability4.1
Economic dependency4.9
Ethno-cultural composition2.0
Situational vulnerability4.4
This is the one part of the block measured for Prescott itself, and it sets the scene rather than feeding the grade.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
For its deprivation
Level with regions as deprived, give or take a few months
Every town shares its health region’s figures, so this compares 102 regions; the one holding Prescott’s lies near the line.
Situational vulnerability: residents’ average quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprivedLife expectancy at birth (years)
Life expectancy and deprivation move in opposite directions across 102 regions (correlation −0.83); at 2.9, the expected figure is 81.3 years, and Prescott’s region matches it closely with 81.2. Among its 10 nearest neighbours on the index it sits mid-table: 4 above, 4 below, a median of 81.2 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.
Conditions and habits
In the region, high blood pressure (24%) and diabetes (7.6%)
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
24%
Arthritis
34%
Diabetes
7.6%
Obese (self-reported)
38%
Mood disorder
15%
Anxiety disorder
18%
Habits · 2023/2024
Smoke daily or now and then
14%
Smoke every day
11%
Heavy drinking
21%
Ontario
At 38%, self-reported obesity is above Ontario’s 30%. Heavy drinking is commoner too (21% against 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.
Health survey
About as many rate their health highly here as in Ontario: 49% and 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
49%
Health fair or poor
20%
Mental health very good or excellent
56%
Mental health fair or poor
15%
Most days quite a bit stressful
22%
Strong sense of belonging
65%
Satisfied with life
86%
Ontario
More adults here report very good or excellent mental health than across Ontario (56% against 51%), while 22% 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
Prescott is 36th of 40 towns its size for nearness to a hospital
The 40 Canadian towns nearest its population (4,276 to 4,422 people), nearest a hospital first; their median is 3.9 km.
Around Prescott the health region doesn’t change, so the only column that moves is the distance to a hospital. Brockville is the closest to care, 1.5 km to Prescott’s 17 km.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
•
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 Prescott’s own.
•
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.
•
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. Self-rated health, chronic conditions and smoking enter the grade adjusted to Canada’s adult age mix, though the survey block prints them as people answered.
•
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.
Questions about health in Prescott
How is Prescott’s Health Grade worked out?
Canada’s grades haven’t been set, so Prescott has none yet; when they are, Health will set its region and its hospital distance against the typical Canadian town.
How far is Prescott from a hospital?
For everyday care, Prescott’s residents are 0.6 km from a pharmacy and 1.0 km from a clinic on average.
How healthy is Prescott?
The region trails the typical Canadian town on each of its four survey and life-expectancy figures. The three chronic conditions the grade counts average 18% of adults.
What is the life expectancy in Prescott?
For the health region that includes Prescott, women can expect 83.3 years and men 79.2 (2022/2024).
Photo: R Orville Lyttle · CC BY-SA 2.0