Health in Matagami · CCHS 2023/2024, Statistics Canada
Around Matagami, 65% rate their health very good or excellent, against 52% for the typical Canadian town
Statistics Canada puts the region’s life expectancy at 78.1, women 78.5 and men 77.6 (2022/2024). Closer to home, a hospital is just 0.3 km from the average resident of Matagami, nearer than the usual 3.7 km. The Health grade for Matagami is B−.
Life expectancy in the region around Matagami runs 3.4 years behind the typical Canadian town’s, and at 65 people can expect 18.3 more years (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
More smokers
Smoking is commoner around Matagami than in the typical Canadian town’s region, and 13% of adults smoke every day. 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.
Health Grade
Matagami 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.
Very good or excellent health (65%)Better than almost every Canadian town
Chronic conditions (19%)Better than 29% of Canadian towns
Smokers (15%)Better than 35% of Canadian towns
Life expectancy (78.1)Better than 10% of Canadian towns
Distance to a hospital (0.3 km)Better than almost every Canadian town
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 wider area
Life expectancy across the 18 health 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.
78.1
years at birth, 2022/2024
18.3
more years expected at 65
16th
longest of 18 regions in Quebec
Life expectancy at birth by health region · 2022/2024
Région de Laval84.1
Région de Montréal83.4
Région de la Capitale-Nationale82.9
Région de l'Estrie82.9
Région de la Chaudière-Appalaches82.8
Région de la Montérégie82.5
Région des Laurentides82.2
Région de Lanaudière82.0
Région du Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean81.8
Région du Bas-Saint-Laurent81.7
Région de la Mauricie et du Centre-du-Québec81.6
Région de l'Outaouais80.7
Région de la Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine79.9
Région de l'Abitibi-Témiscamingue79.5
Région de la Côte-Nord79.4
Région du Nord-du-Québec78.1
Région des Terres-Cries-de-la-Baie-James76.8
Région du Nunavik65.2
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
Residential instability2.5
Economic dependency2.5
Ethno-cultural composition1.0
Situational vulnerability2.9
These four scores average the national quintile of the areas where Matagami’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.
Conditions and habits
High blood pressure for 23% of adults in the region, diabetes for 12%
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
23%
Arthritis
22%
Diabetes
12%
Obese (self-reported)
41%
Mood disorder
16%
Anxiety disorder
9.4%
Habits · 2023/2024
Smoke daily or now and then
15%
Smoke every day
13%
Heavy drinking
34%
Flu shot in the past year
33%
Quebec
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.
For its deprivation
Life expectancy about where the region’s deprivation puts it, a shade above
Each dot is a health region, not a town, its figures shared by every town in it; Matagami’s region sits on the trend line through 102 regions.
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 3.8, the expected figure is 78.0 years, and Matagami’s region matches it closely with 78.1. Even beside regions as deprived, it lags: 8 of its 10 closest matches reach further, their median 79.2 years. Income would point the wrong way: households in the region’s towns earn about $87,000, more than in most regions, yet lives here are shorter than in most (across regions, income and life expectancy correlate at just 0.14).
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 care
From Matagami, a hospital is 0.3 km away on average
Straight-line distances from each part of Matagami, weighted by who lives there.
Hospital
0.3 km
residents’ average distance
the typical Canadian town: 3.7 km
Clinic
120 km
community health centre or clinic, residents’ average
Pharmacy
0.5 km
residents’ average distance
1.0 within 3 km of a typical home
More than 30 km from a hospital
0%
share of residents
Emergency
911
police, fire, ambulance; 811 for health advice in most provinces
Matagami is closer in than the provincial norm of 5.3 km in Quebec, and than the typical Canadian town at 3.7 km.
65% in the region call their health very good or excellent, more than in Quebec (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
Health very good or excellent
65%
Health fair or poor
12%
Mental health very good or excellent
72%
Mental health fair or poor
5.1%
Most days quite a bit stressful
13%
Strong sense of belonging
72%
Satisfied with life
93%
Quebec
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.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
•
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.
•
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.
•
Regional figures. Every place in the health region carries the same survey and life-expectancy figures; what is measured for Matagami itself is the trip to care.
•
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.
•
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.
Questions about health in Matagami
How healthy is Matagami?
Taken together the region leans less healthy than the typical Canadian town, but the picture is mixed. Its chronic-condition figure, age-standardised, is 19%.
What is the life expectancy in Matagami?
Women in Matagami’s region live to 78.5 on average and men to 77.6, Statistics Canada’s 2022/2024 estimate.
How far is Matagami from a hospital?
In a straight line from where people in Matagami live: 120 km to a clinic, 0.5 km to a pharmacy.
How is Matagami’s Health Grade worked out?
Canada’s grades haven’t been set, so Matagami has none yet; when they are, Health will set its region and its hospital distance against the typical Canadian town.
Photo: TOBound · Public domain