Photo: Robert Garry · CC BY-SA 4.0Very good or excellent health for 65% of adults around Chibougamau; the typical Canadian town: 52%
The region’s 2022/2024 life expectancy is 78.1, with women at 78.5 and men at 77.6. For Chibougamau itself the measure is access, and it scores well: 1.7 km to the nearest hospital, where 3.7 km is typical. The Health grade for Chibougamau is B−, #490 of 503 in Quebec and #1,988 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Chibougamau
Life expectancy below the norm
Chibougamau’s region sits 3.4 years below the typical Canadian town, and those reaching 65 have 18.3 years ahead (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
More smokers
Around Chibougamau, 13% of adults smoke daily, part of a smoking rate higher than most Canadian towns’ regions. Conditions and habits ↓
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.
Chibougamau 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.
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: #490 of 503 in Quebec and #1,988 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.
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
Among the 18 regions in Quebec, from 65.2 to 84.1 years, this one is 16th.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
Higher means more deprived: the bars average the quintiles of the areas Chibougamau’s residents live in, and none of them counts toward Health.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
High blood pressure for 23% of adults in the region, diabetes for 12%
Long-term conditions and habits as the region’s adults reported them; the tick marks the province.
Conditions and weight · 2023/2024
Habits · 2023/2024
At 41%, self-reported obesity is above Quebec’s 29%. Heavy drinking is commoner too (34% against 22%).
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.
Life expectancy about where the region’s deprivation puts it, a shade above
102 dots, 102 health regions: no town has its own life expectancy here, and Chibougamau’s region shows close to the trend.
Deprivation explains most of the gap between regions (correlation −0.83 over 102), and Chibougamau’s region is a typical case: 78.1 years at a score of 3.8, where the trend says 78.0. Most of the 10 regions with the nearest deprivation scores outlive it (8 of 10, median 79.2 years). Judged by income, around $87,000 a household, the region would look well placed, but income tracks life expectancy only weakly between regions (0.14), and this one lives less long than most.
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 nearest hospital is 1.7 km from the average home in Chibougamau
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Chibougamau’s own, not the region’s.
Chibougamau is closer in than the provincial norm of 5.3 km in Quebec, and than the typical Canadian town at 3.7 km.
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.
Self-rated health beats Quebec: 65% very good or excellent, against 56%
The survey’s answers for the region as given, each beside the province’s (the tick).
Share of adults, as answered · 2023/2024
More adults here report very good or excellent mental health than across Quebec (72% against 64%), while 13% call most days stressful.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Closer to a hospital than most towns its size: Chibougamau comes 9th of 40
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 7,161 to 7,391 people, median 3.7 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Currie Barracks AB A+ | 7,342 | 0.7 km | 56% |
| 2 | Coronation Park SK B+ | 7,307 | 0.8 km | 49% |
| 3 | Cathedral Village SK B+ | 7,311 | 0.9 km | 49% |
| 7 | Inglewood AB B+ | 7,167 | 1.1 km | 51% |
| 8 | La Sarre QC B | 7,199 | 1.2 km | 57% |
| 9 | Chibougamau QC B− | 7,273 | 1.7 km | 65% |
| 10 | Merritt BC C+ | 7,190 | 1.7 km | 48% |
| 11 | Vanier South ON A+ | 7,259 | 2.0 km | 56% |
| 40 | Trent Lakes ON C− | 7,357 | 30 km | 47% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
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.
- 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. 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.
- Regional figures. Statistics Canada reports the survey and life expectancy by health region, not by town: Chibougamau shares them with its neighbours, while the distances are measured for it alone.
- 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 Chibougamau
How healthy is Chibougamau?
Most of the region’s figures sit on the less healthy side of the typical Canadian town’s, though not all. Its chronic-condition figure, age-standardised, is 19%.
What is the life expectancy in Chibougamau?
Statistics Canada publishes it for Chibougamau’s health region only: 78.5 years for women and 77.6 for men (2022/2024).
How far is Chibougamau from a hospital?
For everyday care, Chibougamau’s residents are 1.6 km from a pharmacy and 33 km from a clinic on average.
How is Chibougamau’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 Chibougamau’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).