Health in Wasaga Beach · CCHS 2023/2024, Statistics Canada
Very good or excellent health for 54% of adults in Wasaga Beach’s health region
Statistics Canada puts the region’s life expectancy at 81.5, women 83.5 and men 79.5 (2022/2024). The town’s own part is the trip to care, and Wasaga Beach’s is long: 5.0 km to a hospital on average, against 3.7 km typical. The Health grade for Wasaga Beach is B+, #479 of 866 in Ontario and #1,227 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
Ontario: 51% · Measured across the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit: very good or excellent health, chronic conditions, smokers and life expectancy
Chronic conditions
17%
arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure: average share
Ontario: 17%
Smokers
12%
daily or occasional, age-standardised
Ontario: 11%
Life expectancy
81.5
at birth, 2022/2024
women 83.5 · men 79.5
Nearest hospital
5.0 km
residents’ average, straight line
the typical Canadian town: 3.7 km
Health Grade
Wasaga Beach 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.
Very good or excellent health (54%)Better than 60% of Canadian towns
Chronic conditions (17%)Better than 53% of Canadian towns
Smokers (12%)Better than 77% of Canadian towns
Life expectancy (81.5)Better than 64% of Canadian towns
Distance to a hospital (5.0 km)Better than 73% 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: #479 of 866 in Ontario and #1,227 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.
For its deprivation
On the trend for regions as deprived, just over it
Plotted region by region (102 in all, since towns have no figures of their own), Wasaga Beach’s region comes out on the trend.
Situational vulnerability: residents’ average quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprivedLife expectancy at birth (years)
Placed among 102 regions by deprivation (correlation −0.83), the region Wasaga Beach belongs to lives about as long as its score of 2.8 predicts: 81.5 years, the trend 81.5. Narrow the field to the 10 regions most like it on deprivation and it still beats 8, with 81.2 years in the middle.
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 (20%) and diabetes (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
20%
Arthritis
26%
Diabetes
8%
Obese (self-reported)
34%
Mood disorder
13%
Anxiety disorder
13%
Habits · 2023/2024
Smoke daily or now and then
12%
Smoke every day
9.3%
Heavy drinking
20%
Ontario
More adults report obesity than across Ontario: 34%, the province 30%. At 20%, 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.
Getting care
From Wasaga Beach, a hospital is 5.0 km away on average
Straight-line distances from each part of Wasaga Beach, weighted by who lives there.
Hospital
5.0 km
residents’ average distance
the typical Canadian town: 3.7 km
Clinic
13 km
community health centre or clinic, residents’ average
Pharmacy
4.6 km
residents’ average distance
1.1 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
Wasaga Beach is further out than the provincial norm of 3.3 km in Ontario, and than the typical Canadian town at 3.7 km.
How the 34 health regions in Ontario compare on life expectancy
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.
81.5
years at birth, 2022/2024
20.5
more years expected at 65
12th
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
Of the 34 health regions in Ontario, 12th place goes to this one, between a low of 73.7 and a high of 86.3.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
Residential instability2.9
Economic dependency4.7
Ethno-cultural composition2.8
Situational vulnerability2.5
These four scores average the national quintile of the areas where Wasaga Beach’s residents live; they carry no weight in the grade.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
Health survey
More people rate their health highly here than in Ontario: 54% to 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
54%
Health fair or poor
14%
Mental health very good or excellent
49%
Mental health fair or poor
16%
Most days quite a bit stressful
24%
Strong sense of belonging
63%
Satisfied with life
83%
Ontario
Stress touches 24% 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.
Towns its size
Further from a hospital than most towns its size: Wasaga Beach comes 30th of 40
The 40 Canadian towns nearest its population (27,388 to 30,171 people), nearest a hospital first; their median is 2.9 km.
Only the hospital column is local here: Wasaga Beach and its neighbours share one health region’s survey. Stayner is the furthest from care, 9.8 km to Wasaga Beach’s 5.0 km.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
•
Deprivation is context. None of the four deprivation scores enters the grade; they come from the 2021 index, which skips the territories.
•
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.
•
Regional figures. Statistics Canada reports the survey and life expectancy by health region, not by town: Wasaga Beach shares them with its neighbours, while the distances are measured for it alone.
•
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.
•
Adjusted for age. The grade’s three survey shares are age-standardised to Canada’s adults, so an older region isn’t marked down for age alone, while the survey charts show answers as given.
•
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 Wasaga Beach
How healthy is Wasaga Beach?
More of the region’s survey and life-expectancy figures trail the typical Canadian town than beat it. Chronic conditions there average 17% across arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure.
How is Wasaga Beach’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 Wasaga Beach’s homes are from a hospital, against the typical Canadian town.
How far is Wasaga Beach from a hospital?
In a straight line from where people in Wasaga Beach live: 13 km to a clinic, 4.6 km to a pharmacy.
What is the life expectancy in Wasaga Beach?
For the health region that includes Wasaga Beach, women can expect 83.5 years and men 79.5 (2022/2024).
Photo: Joe Mabel (on Flickr as Joe Mabel from Seattle, US) · CC BY-SA 3.0