Health in Whitestone · CCHS 2023/2024, Statistics Canada
Health in Whitestone trails 93% of Canadian towns
The survey puts the region’s share in very good or excellent health at 47%, behind the 51% for Ontario. What sets Whitestone apart within its region is distance: 36 km to a hospital on average, over 30 km for 100% of residents. The Health grade for Whitestone is D.
Ontario: 51% · Measured across the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit: very good or excellent health, chronic conditions, smokers and life expectancy
Chronic conditions
19%
arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure: average share
The age-standardised smoking rate around Whitestone is well above the typical town’s; 14% of adults are daily smokers. Conditions and habits ↓
Far from a hospital
Distance is Whitestone’s own health question: 100% of residents live beyond 30 km of a hospital, and the trip from its centre is 37 km. Getting care ↓
A long way to a pharmacy
From the average home in Whitestone, a pharmacy is 35 km away, a longer trip than most Canadians make for medicine. Getting care ↓
Beating its deprivation on life expectancy
Whitestone’s region beats what its deprivation score of 3.7 predicts: 80.0 years against 78.2. For its deprivation ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Health Grade
Whitestone 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 (36 km)Better than 6% 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.
Conditions and habits
27% of the region’s adults have high blood pressure and 9.7% diabetes
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
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
The nearest hospital is 36 km from the average home in Whitestone
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Whitestone’s own, not the region’s.
Hospital
36 km
residents’ average distance
the typical Canadian town: 3.7 km
Clinic
31 km
community health centre or clinic, residents’ average
Pharmacy
35 km
residents’ average distance
0.0 within 3 km of a typical home
More than 30 km from a hospital
100%
share of residents
Emergency
911
police, fire, ambulance; 811 for health advice in most provinces
Residents of Whitestone travel further than most of the province: the typical town in Ontario is 3.3 km from a hospital, the typical Canadian town 3.7 km.
1.8 years above the line for regions this deprived
Every town shares its health region’s figures, so this compares 102 regions; the one holding Whitestone’s lies above 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 3.7, the expected figure is 78.2 years, and Whitestone’s region does better with 80.0. It outlives 9 of the 10 regions nearest it on the index, whose median is 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
Longest and shortest lives among the 34 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
Ranked 24th of 34 in Ontario: the regions span 73.7 to 86.3 years at birth.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
Residential instability2.5
Economic dependency5.0
Ethno-cultural composition1.5
Situational vulnerability3.0
The index is context and never graded: it describes Whitestone’s own areas, averaged over residents, on each of its four dimensions.
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%
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
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
Mental health is no outlier: 49% say very good or excellent (Ontario: 51%) and 25% live with stressful days.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
•
Adjusted for age. Because older people report more illness, the grade uses age-standardised shares; the charts above show the unadjusted answers.
•
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 Whitestone alone, because the health survey and life expectancy come for the whole health region.
•
Deprivation is context. Statistics Canada’s 2021 deprivation index describes the town’s own areas for context only, with no index for the territories.
•
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.
•
Who the survey asks. People on reserves and in institutions, full-time military members and the residents of Nunavik and Eeyou Istchee aren’t interviewed by the survey.
Questions about health in Whitestone
How far is Whitestone from a hospital?
Residents of Whitestone have a clinic 31 km away on average and a pharmacy 35 km away, in straight lines.
How is Whitestone’s Health Grade worked out?
Not yet: Health will weigh the region’s survey and life expectancy and Whitestone’s distance to a hospital against the typical Canadian town once Canada’s grading run happens.
How healthy is Whitestone?
On every regional measure, the region does worse than the typical Canadian town. The three chronic conditions the grade counts average 19% of adults.
What is the life expectancy in Whitestone?
There is no figure for Whitestone alone; its health region’s is 82.6 for women and 77.6 for men in 2022/2024.
Photo: P199 · CC BY-SA 3.0