Photo: busand2003 · CC BY 3.018% of adults smoke in the health region around Gaspé, against 12% for the typical Canadian town
About as many adults call their health very good or excellent here as across Quebec, 56% against 57%. What sets Gaspé apart within its region is a longer trip to hospital, 9.9 km for the average resident (3.7 km typical). Gaspé grades C+ for health, #497 of 503 in Quebec and #2,146 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Gaspé
Beating its deprivation on life expectancy
Deprivation alone, a score of 4.1, would put Gaspé’s region near 76.8 years; it reaches 79.9. For its deprivation ↓
A region where lives run shorter
Born around Gaspé, a child can expect 1.6 fewer years than in the typical Canadian town’s region; at 65, another 19.4 (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
A long way to hospital
Residents of Gaspé live much further from a hospital than in the typical Canadian town (0.1 km from its centre of population), and 0% are more than 30 km away. Getting care ↓
More people feeling well
The survey’s age-standardised figure sits 4.7 points over the typical Canadian town’s, and 53% answered very good or excellent. Health survey ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Gaspé 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.
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: #497 of 503 in Quebec and #2,146 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.
Longer lives than deprivation would give: 3.1 years ahead of the trend
These are health regions, 102 of them, not towns: the survey and life expectancy are published that way, so the dot for Gaspé’s region, above the line, stands for every town in it.
At 4.1 on the index, the trend across 102 regions (correlation −0.83) points to 76.8 years, and the region Gaspé belongs to reaches 79.9. It outlives 9 of the 10 regions nearest it on the index, whose median is 77.9 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.
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 13th.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
The index is context and never graded: it describes Gaspé’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.
From Gaspé, a hospital is 9.9 km away on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Gaspé’s own, not the region’s.
Residents of Gaspé travel further than most of the province: the typical town in Quebec is 5.3 km from a hospital, the typical Canadian town 3.7 km. Homes are spread out: from the town’s centre of population the hospital is 0.1 km, while the average resident is 9.9 km away.
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.
Fewer people rate their health highly here than in Quebec: 53% to 56%
The survey’s answers for the region as given, each beside the province’s (the tick).
Share of adults, as answered · 2023/2024
On mental health the region is ahead of Quebec, 68% very good or excellent to 64%; 12% describe most days as quite a bit stressful.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
In the region, high blood pressure (28%) and diabetes (11%)
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 37%, self-reported obesity is above Quebec’s 29%.
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.
Among 40 towns its size, Gaspé is 35th nearest a hospital
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 15,181 to 15,792 people, median 2.5 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Trinity-Bellwoods ON A | 15,691 | 0.5 km | 50% |
| 2 | Little Portugal ON A | 15,669 | 0.8 km | 50% |
| 3 | Loretteville QC A+ | 15,653 | 1.0 km | 62% |
| 33 | Central Elgin ON B− | 15,230 | 6.8 km | 49% |
| 34 | East Riverside ON B | 15,758 | 7.7 km | 52% |
| 35 | Gaspé QC C+ | 15,479 | 9.9 km | 56% |
| 36 | Beauharnois QC A | 15,285 | 10 km | 55% |
| 37 | Severn ON B | 15,716 | 13 km | 54% |
| 40 | Sainte-Adèle QC A | 15,216 | 16 km | 60% |
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
- What counts as a hospital. Facility locations come from Statistics Canada’s open database; records without coordinates sit at their postal code, and not every hospital has an emergency room.
- Regional figures. Only the distances on this page belong to Gaspé alone, because the health survey and life expectancy come for the whole health region.
- 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.
- Distances are straight lines. Each small census area is measured as the crow flies to the nearest facility and weighted by its 2021 residents, so real trips run longer.
- 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. The Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation (2021) is context, never graded, and the territories have none.
Questions about health in Gaspé
How is Gaspé’s Health Grade worked out?
Not so far; the grade arrives with Canada’s grading run and will set the region’s figures, plus Gaspé’s own distance to care, against the typical Canadian town.
How healthy is Gaspé?
Most of the region’s figures sit on the less healthy side of the typical Canadian town’s, though not all. Chronic conditions there average 18% across arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure.
What is the life expectancy in Gaspé?
There is no figure for Gaspé alone; its health region’s is 81.6 for women and 78.2 for men in 2022/2024.
How far is Gaspé from a hospital?
Residents of Gaspé have a clinic 5.8 km away on average and a pharmacy 5.8 km away, in straight lines.
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).