Health in The Archipelago · CCHS 2023/2024, Statistics Canada
More smokers around The Archipelago: 18% of adults, where the typical Canadian town has 12%
Adults here are less upbeat about their health than the province: 47% very good or excellent, against 51% in Ontario. For The Archipelago itself the measure is access, and it lags: 5.6 km to the nearest hospital, where 3.7 km is typical. The Archipelago grades C− for health.
The Archipelago’s region sits 1.5 years below the typical Canadian town, and those reaching 65 have 20.2 years ahead (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
Fewer people feeling well
The survey’s age-standardised figure sits 4.3 points under the typical Canadian town’s, and 46% answered very good or excellent. Health survey ↓
Ahead of regions as deprived
The Archipelago’s region beats what its deprivation score of 3.7 predicts: 80.0 years against 78.2. For its deprivation ↓
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
The Archipelago 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 (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 (5.6 km)Better than 71% 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.
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.
For its deprivation
A region that outlives its deprivation by 1.8 years
One dot per health region, 102 in all, since life expectancy and the index are published for regions; The Archipelago’s dot is marked, above the line.
Situational vulnerability: residents’ average quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprivedLife expectancy at birth (years)
Ranked from least to most deprived on Statistics Canada’s index, regions see lives shorten along the way (correlation −0.83, 102 regions). Scored 3.7, The Archipelago’s region would be expected to reach 78.2 years; it reaches 80.0. Even beside regions as deprived, it stands out: 9 of its 10 closest matches fall short, their median 78.2 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.
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.
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.
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
Stress touches 25% of adults on most days; mental health is rated very good or excellent by 49%, the province 51% (Ontario).
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
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 The Archipelago, a hospital is 5.6 km away on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is The Archipelago’s own, not the region’s.
Hospital
5.6 km
residents’ average distance
the typical Canadian town: 3.7 km
Clinic
5.0 km
community health centre or clinic, residents’ average
Pharmacy
5.2 km
residents’ average distance
0.0 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, The Archipelago is on the far side.
Because the health region stops further out than these places, they all carry The Archipelago’s regional figures. Carling is the furthest from care, 17 km to The Archipelago’s 5.6 km.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
•
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.
•
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. 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.
•
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. Only the distances on this page belong to The Archipelago alone, because the health survey and life expectancy come for the whole health region.
Questions about health in The Archipelago
How is The Archipelago’s Health Grade worked out?
Not yet: Health will weigh the region’s survey and life expectancy and The Archipelago’s distance to a hospital against the typical Canadian town once Canada’s grading run happens.
How healthy is The Archipelago?
On every regional measure, the region does worse than the typical Canadian town. Its chronic-condition figure, age-standardised, is 19%.
What is the life expectancy in The Archipelago?
There is no figure for The Archipelago alone; its health region’s is 82.6 for women and 77.6 for men in 2022/2024.
How far is The Archipelago from a hospital?
In a straight line from where people in The Archipelago live: 5.0 km to a clinic, 5.2 km to a pharmacy.
Photo: Raymond Leung from Toronto, Canada · CC BY 2.0