Photo: Groupe de recherche en art du Québec · CC BY-SA 4.0For health, Stanstead is ahead of 85% of Canadian towns
In the health survey, 57% of adults in the region rate their health very good or excellent, close to Quebec’s 57%. Closer to home, a hospital is 17 km from the average resident of Stanstead, further than the usual 3.7 km. Health gives Stanstead a grade of A.
What stands out about health in Stanstead
A long way to hospital
Residents of Stanstead live much further from a hospital than in the typical Canadian town (16 km from its centre of population), and 0% are more than 30 km away. Getting care ↓
More years than its deprivation would give
Set against regions as deprived (3.0), Stanstead’s region gains years: 82.9 where the trend says 81.0. For its deprivation ↓
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 ↓
A long-lived region
Born around Stanstead, a child can expect 1.4 more years than in the typical Canadian town’s region; at 65, another 21.2 (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
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.
Stanstead 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.
From Stanstead, a hospital is 17 km away on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Stanstead’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, Stanstead is on the far 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.
Ahead of regions as deprived by 1.9 years of life
Plotted region by region (102 in all, since towns have no figures of their own), Stanstead’s region comes out above the trend.
Deprivation explains much of the gap between regions (correlation −0.83 over 102 of them), yet Stanstead’s region beats it: 82.9 years against the 81.0 the trend gives a score of 3.0. It outlives 9 of the 10 regions nearest it on the index, whose median is 80.4 years. Its towns’ household income, about $67,000, sits below most regions’ while its life expectancy sits above; across regions it is the deprivation index, not income, that follows lives (income’s 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.
19% of the region’s adults have high blood pressure and 9.1% diabetes
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
Self-reported obesity, 29%, 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
This region is 3rd longest-lived of 18 in Quebec, on a scale from 65.2 to 84.1 years.
Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation · national quintile, 1 least to 5 most deprived
Context only: each bar is the residents’ average quintile on one dimension of Statistics Canada’s index, for Stanstead’s own areas.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
About as many rate their health highly here as in Quebec: 56% and 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 Stanstead
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stanstead | 17 km | 57% | 82.9 | A |
| Ayer's Cliff 11 km | 13 km | 57% | 82.9 | A |
| Stanstead 14 km | 27 km | 57% | 82.9 | A− |
| Magog 16 km | 2.6 km | 57% | 82.9 | A+ |
| Bolton-Est 16 km | 16 km | 57% | 82.9 | A |
| Austin 18 km | 10 km | 57% | 82.9 | A |
| Sainte-Catherine-de-Hatley 18 km | 7.3 km | 57% | 82.9 | A |
Stanstead and all of these places belong to one health region: the regional figures repeat, the hospital distances don’t. Magog is the closest to care, 2.6 km to Stanstead’s 17 km.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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.
- Adjusted for age. Because older people report more illness, the grade uses age-standardised shares; the charts above show the unadjusted answers.
- 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.
- Deprivation is context. The Canadian Index of Multiple Deprivation (2021) is context, never graded, and the territories have none.
- Regional figures. Statistics Canada reports the survey and life expectancy by health region, not by town: Stanstead shares them with its neighbours, while the distances are measured for it alone.
- 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 Stanstead
How far is Stanstead from a hospital?
A clinic is 13 km from the average resident of Stanstead and a pharmacy 13 km, as the crow flies.
How healthy is Stanstead?
Taken together the region leans healthier than the typical Canadian town, but the picture is mixed. Its chronic-condition figure, age-standardised, is 14%.
What is the life expectancy in Stanstead?
Women in Stanstead’s region live to 84.8 on average and men to 81.0, Statistics Canada’s 2022/2024 estimate.
How is Stanstead’s Health Grade worked out?
Not so far; the grade arrives with Canada’s grading run and will set the region’s figures, plus Stanstead’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).