Photo: Krisco75 · CC BY-SA 3.0Few places match Ayer's Cliff for health: it beats 90% of Canadian towns
The survey puts the region’s share in very good or excellent health at 57%; Quebec as a whole is at 57%. The town’s own part is the trip to care, and Ayer's Cliff’s is long: 13 km to a hospital on average, against 3.7 km typical. Ayer's Cliff grades A for health.
What stands out about health in Ayer's Cliff
Longer lives than its deprivation predicts
At 82.9 years, Ayer's Cliff’s region outlives the 81.0 that regions scoring 3.0 on the index typically reach. For its deprivation ↓
Far from a hospital
Residents of Ayer's Cliff live much further from a hospital than in the typical Canadian town (13 km from its centre of population), and 0% are more than 30 km away. Getting care ↓
Less chronic illness
High blood pressure (19%) and diabetes (9.1%) keep the region’s chronic-condition figure below the typical Canadian town’s. Conditions and habits ↓
Life expectancy above the norm
Life expectancy in the region around Ayer's Cliff runs 1.4 years ahead of the typical Canadian town’s, and at 65 people can expect 21.2 more years (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Ayer's Cliff grades A for health
Each input ranked against Canadian towns of 2,500 or more: the region’s four, the town’s distance to a hospital.
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.
Longer-lived than its deprivation suggests, by 1.9 years
Each dot is a health region, not a town, its figures shared by every town in it; Ayer's Cliff’s region sits above the trend line through 102 regions.
Measured against 102 regions, more deprivation means shorter lives, and steadily so (correlation −0.83). Ayer's Cliff’s region, at 3.0, outlives the trend’s 81.0 years with 82.9. Most of the 10 regions with the nearest deprivation scores fall short of it (9 of 10, median 80.4 years). Lower incomes, longer lives: about $67,000 a household, under most regions’, with a life expectancy above most; income and lifespan correlate at only 0.14 across regions.
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.
Getting to hospital from Ayer's Cliff: 13 km on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Ayer's Cliff’s own, not the region’s.
Compared with 5.3 km for the typical town in Quebec and 3.7 km for the typical Canadian town, Ayer's Cliff is on the far side.
Hospitals and clinics: Statistics Canada, Open Database of Healthcare Facilities. Pharmacies: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Straight-line distances from each dissemination area, weighted by its 2021 population.
19% of the region’s adults have high blood pressure and 9.1% diabetes
What the survey finds on conditions, weight and habits for the region, the province as the tick.
Conditions and weight · 2023/2024
Habits · 2023/2024
Obesity is close to the province’s level, 29% of adults against 29% for Quebec.
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.
Longest and shortest lives among the 18 regions in Quebec
Regional life expectancy in Quebec, then the town’s place on the national deprivation index.
Life expectancy at birth by health region · 2022/2024
Life expectancy in Quebec runs from 65.2 to 84.1; this region sits 3rd of the 18.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
The index is context and never graded: it describes Ayer's Cliff’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.
About as many rate their health highly here as in Quebec: 56% and 56%
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
Neither ahead nor behind Quebec on mental health (63% to 64%), the region has 20% of adults stressed most days.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Health in the places around Ayer's Cliff
Nearby places: distance to a hospital and each one’s regional figures. Tap a town for its health page.
| Town | Hospital | Very good health | Life exp. | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ayer's Cliff | 13 km | 57% | 82.9 | A |
| Sainte-Catherine-de-Hatley 9.3 km | 7.3 km | 57% | 82.9 | A |
| Stanstead 11 km | 17 km | 57% | 82.9 | A |
| Magog 13 km | 2.6 km | 57% | 82.9 | A+ |
| Compton 18 km | 11 km | 57% | 82.9 | A |
| Waterville 19 km | 11 km | 57% | 82.9 | A |
| Stanstead 19 km | 27 km | 57% | 82.9 | A− |
Around Ayer's Cliff the health region doesn’t change, so the only column that moves is the distance to a hospital. Residents of Stanstead live further from a hospital, at 27 km against 13 km in Ayer's Cliff.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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. 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.
- Deprivation is context. None of the four deprivation scores enters the grade; they come from the 2021 index, which skips the territories.
- 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 Ayer's Cliff’s own.
- Who the survey asks. The health survey leaves out people living on reserves, full-time Canadian Forces members, people in institutions, and Nunavik and the Cree lands of James Bay.
- 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 Ayer's Cliff
How healthy is Ayer's Cliff?
More of the region’s survey and life-expectancy figures beat the typical Canadian town than trail it. Chronic conditions there average 14% across arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure.
How far is Ayer's Cliff from a hospital?
In a straight line from where people in Ayer's Cliff live: 0.6 km to a clinic, 0.7 km to a pharmacy.
What is the life expectancy in Ayer's Cliff?
Statistics Canada publishes it for Ayer's Cliff’s health region only: 84.8 years for women and 81.0 for men (2022/2024).
How is Ayer's Cliff’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 Ayer's Cliff’s homes are from a hospital, against the typical Canadian town.
Sources: Statistics Canada, Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (13-10-0972) · Statistics Canada, life expectancy 2022/2024 (13-10-0988) · Statistics Canada, health regions 2023 (82-402-X) · Statistics Canada, Open Database of Healthcare Facilities · pharmacies © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Statistics Canada, Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation 2021. Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).