Photo: Richard Coté · CC BY-SA 4.0Few places match Lac-Drolet for health: it beats 86% of Canadian towns
Across the region, 57% of adults say their health is very good or excellent, much as in Quebec (57%). The town’s own part is the trip to care, and Lac-Drolet’s is long: 16 km to a hospital on average, against 3.7 km typical. Lac-Drolet grades A for health.
What stands out about health in Lac-Drolet
A long way to hospital
For 0% of homes in Lac-Drolet the nearest hospital is over 30 km off; from the town’s centre of population it is 18 km. Getting care ↓
Living past what deprivation predicts
For a deprivation score of 3.0, the trend across regions gives 81.0 years of life; Lac-Drolet’s region reaches 82.9. For its deprivation ↓
Pharmacies far off
From the average home in Lac-Drolet, a pharmacy is 16 km away, a longer trip than most Canadians make for medicine. Getting care ↓
A lighter load of illness
For its ages, the region carries less long-term illness than most: high blood pressure for 19% of adults, diabetes for 9.1%. Conditions and habits ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Lac-Drolet 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.
The nearest hospital is 16 km from the average home in Lac-Drolet
Straight-line distances from each part of Lac-Drolet, weighted by who lives there.
Lac-Drolet is further out 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.
Deprivation predicts less: the region outlives the trend by 1.9 years
One dot per health region, 102 in all, since life expectancy and the index are published for regions; Lac-Drolet’s dot is marked, above the line.
Life expectancy and deprivation move in opposite directions across 102 regions (correlation −0.83); at 3.0, the expected figure is 81.0 years, and Lac-Drolet’s region does better with 82.9. Set beside its 10 nearest neighbours on the index, it outlives the majority, 9 of 10; their median is 80.4 years. The towns here bring in about $67,000 a household, below the typical region, while living longer than it; that is why income, which correlates at just 0.14 with life expectancy across regions, isn’t the measure.
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.
High blood pressure for 19% of adults in the region, diabetes for 9.1%
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
At 29%, self-reported obesity is near 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.
Longest and shortest lives among the 18 regions in Quebec
What Statistics Canada publishes above the town: life expectancy for each health region in Quebec, and the deprivation index for the town’s own areas.
Life expectancy at birth by health region · 2022/2024
The region comes 3rd of 18 in Quebec, where life expectancy runs from 65.2 to 84.1 years.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
These four scores average the national quintile of the areas where Lac-Drolet’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.
Self-rated health much as in Quebec: 56% to 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 Lac-Drolet
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lac-Drolet | 16 km | 57% | 82.9 | A |
| Saint-Ludger 11 km | 24 km | 57% | 82.9 | A− |
| Nantes 17 km | 4.7 km | 57% | 82.9 | A |
| Lac-Mégantic 18 km | 1.8 km | 57% | 82.9 | A+ |
Only the hospital column is local here: Lac-Drolet and its neighbours share one health region’s survey. Residents of Lac-Mégantic live nearer a hospital, at 1.8 km against 16 km in Lac-Drolet.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Adjusted for age. Self-rated health, chronic conditions and smoking enter the grade adjusted to Canada’s adult age mix, though the survey block prints them as people answered.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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. The survey figures and life expectancy are published for the health region, so every town in it shares them and only the distances are Lac-Drolet’s own.
Questions about health in Lac-Drolet
How far is Lac-Drolet from a hospital?
For everyday care, Lac-Drolet’s residents are 16 km from a pharmacy and 2.2 km from a clinic on average.
How healthy is Lac-Drolet?
Taken together the region leans healthier than the typical Canadian town, but the picture is mixed. The three chronic conditions the grade counts average 14% of adults.
What is the life expectancy in Lac-Drolet?
Statistics Canada publishes it for Lac-Drolet’s health region only: 84.8 years for women and 81.0 for men (2022/2024).
How is Lac-Drolet’s Health Grade worked out?
Not so far; the grade arrives with Canada’s grading run and will set the region’s figures, plus Lac-Drolet’s own distance to care, 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).