Photo: Alain.boucher86 · Public domainSaint-Ferdinand’s health region reports 61% in very good or excellent health, ahead of the typical Canadian town’s 52%
A baby born in the region can expect 81.6 years, 83.3 for a girl and 79.9 for a boy (2022/2024). What sets Saint-Ferdinand apart within its region is a longer trip to hospital, 23 km for the average resident (3.7 km typical). The Health grade for Saint-Ferdinand is B+.
What stands out about health in Saint-Ferdinand
A long way to hospital
Distance is Saint-Ferdinand’s own health question: 0% of residents live beyond 30 km of a hospital, and the trip from its centre is 23 km. Getting care ↓
Outliving the trend for its deprivation
For a deprivation score of 3.2, the trend across regions gives 80.0 years of life; Saint-Ferdinand’s region reaches 81.6. For its deprivation ↓
A lighter load of illness
High blood pressure (21%) and diabetes (8.2%) keep the region’s chronic-condition figure below the typical Canadian town’s. 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.
Saint-Ferdinand 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.
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.
From Saint-Ferdinand, a hospital is 23 km away on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Saint-Ferdinand’s own, not the region’s.
Saint-Ferdinand 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.
Ahead of regions as deprived by 1.6 years of life
These are health regions, 102 of them, not towns: the survey and life expectancy are published that way, so the dot for Saint-Ferdinand’s region, above the line, stands for every town in it.
The trend over 102 regions (correlation −0.83) is clear, and Saint-Ferdinand’s region sits above it: 81.6 years where a score of 3.2 predicts 80.0. It outlives 7 of the 10 regions nearest it on the index, whose median is 80.5 years. Modest pay, about $62,000 a household, and long lives sit side by side here: across regions, income and life expectancy hardly move together (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.
21% of the region’s adults have high blood pressure and 8.2% diabetes
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 34%, self-reported obesity is above Quebec’s 29%. Heavy drinking is commoner too (25% 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.
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 11th.
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 Saint-Ferdinand’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.
Self-rated health beats Quebec: 59% 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
On mental health the region is ahead of Quebec, 68% very good or excellent to 64%; 20% 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.
Health in the places around Saint-Ferdinand
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Ferdinand | 23 km | 61% | 81.6 | B+ |
| Plessisville 17 km | 24 km | 61% | 81.6 | B+ |
| Saint-Norbert-d'Arthabaska 19 km | 7.8 km | 61% | 81.6 | A− |
Nothing in the regional columns separates Saint-Ferdinand from its neighbours; the hospital distance is what does. Saint-Norbert-d'Arthabaska is the closest to care, 7.8 km to Saint-Ferdinand’s 23 km.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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.
- 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.
- 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. Every place in the health region carries the same survey and life-expectancy figures; what is measured for Saint-Ferdinand itself is the trip to care.
- Deprivation is context. The Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation (2021) is context, never graded, and the territories have none.
- 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.
Questions about health in Saint-Ferdinand
How far is Saint-Ferdinand from a hospital?
In a straight line from where people in Saint-Ferdinand live: 17 km to a clinic, 1.7 km to a pharmacy.
How healthy is Saint-Ferdinand?
Most of the region’s figures sit on the healthier side of the typical Canadian town’s, though not all. On arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure, the region’s average share is 14%.
How is Saint-Ferdinand’s Health Grade worked out?
Not so far; the grade arrives with Canada’s grading run and will set the region’s figures, plus Saint-Ferdinand’s own distance to care, against the typical Canadian town.
What is the life expectancy in Saint-Ferdinand?
There is no figure for Saint-Ferdinand alone; its health region’s is 83.3 for women and 79.9 for men in 2022/2024.
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).