Photo: Wilfredor · CC062% of adults around Québec call their health very good or excellent, above the typical Canadian town’s 52%
The region’s 2022/2024 life expectancy is 82.9, with women at 84.7 and men at 81.1. For Québec itself the measure is access: 2.9 km to the nearest hospital, much like the typical 3.7 km. Smoking is rarer than in the province: 9.6% of adults, against 12% for Quebec.
What stands out about health in Québec
A lighter load of illness
For its ages, the region carries less long-term illness than most: high blood pressure for 18% of adults, diabetes for 7.2%. Conditions and habits ↓
Longer lives in the region
Life expectancy in the region around Québec runs 1.4 years ahead of the typical Canadian town’s, and at 65 people can expect 21.1 more years (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
Pharmacies close at hand
With 13 pharmacies within 3 km of the average home and the nearest 0.8 km off, Québec is well served for prescriptions. Getting care ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Québec isn’t graded for health yet
What the grade will weigh: the region’s survey and life expectancy, and the town’s own distance to a hospital, each against 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.
In the region, high blood pressure (18%) and diabetes (7.2%)
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
Self-reported obesity, 30%, sits within a few points of Quebec (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.
How the 18 health regions in Quebec compare on life expectancy
Regional life expectancy in Quebec, then the town’s place on the national deprivation index.
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
Higher means more deprived: the bars average the quintiles of the areas Québec’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.
Getting to hospital from Québec: 2.9 km on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Québec’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, Québec is on the near 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.
Life expectancy close to where deprivation puts it, a shade under
Regions, not towns, with every town in a region sharing its dot: of the 102, the marked one, Québec’s, follows the trend.
The line through 102 regions (correlation −0.83) gives a score of 2.3 about 83.4 years; Québec’s region’s 82.9 is within a year of it. The 10 regions closest to it on the index split evenly around it, 5 above and 5 below; their median is 82.9 years. A household income of about $75,000, modest for a region, comes with longer lives than in most regions; across regions the two barely move together (correlation 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.
More people rate their health highly here than in Quebec: 61% 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
Stress touches 22% of adults on most days; mental health is rated very good or excellent by 66%, the province 64% (Quebec).
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Health in the places around Québec
The places around, with the distance to a hospital and their regions’ figures. Tap a town for its health page.
| Town | Hospital | Very good health | Life exp. | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Québec | 2.9 km | 62% | 82.9 | — |
| Neufchatel Est—Lebourgneuf 1.4 km | 2.8 km | 62% | 82.9 | A+ |
| Charlesbourg 2.7 km | 4.2 km | 62% | 82.9 | A+ |
| Saint-Rodrigue 2.7 km | 2.4 km | 62% | 82.9 | A+ |
| Duberger—Les Saules 2.9 km | 2.8 km | 62% | 82.9 | A+ |
| Vanier 3.5 km | 0.8 km | 62% | 82.9 | A+ |
| Lairet 3.7 km | 1.2 km | 62% | 82.9 | A+ |
The neighbours all sit in Québec’s health region, which is why their regional columns are identical.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Regional figures. Statistics Canada reports the survey and life expectancy by health region, not by town: Québec shares them with its neighbours, while the distances are measured for it alone.
- 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.
- 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. 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.
Questions about health in Québec
How healthy is Québec?
All four of the region’s figures sit on the healthier side of the typical Canadian town’s. Chronic conditions there average 14% across arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure.
Does Québec have a Health grade?
It will once Canada’s single grading run is done, measured on the region’s survey and life expectancy and on how far Québec’s homes are from a hospital, against the typical Canadian town.
What is the life expectancy in Québec?
There is no figure for Québec alone; its health region’s is 84.7 for women and 81.1 for men in 2022/2024.
How far is Québec from a hospital?
In a straight line from where people in Québec live: 1.3 km to a clinic, 0.8 km to a pharmacy.
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).