Health in Waskaganish · CCHS 2023/2024, Statistics Canada
Life expectancy around Waskaganish is 76.8 years, 4.7 less than for the typical Canadian town
Closer to home, a hospital is 132 km from the average resident of Waskaganish, and 100% live more than 30 km away. There will be no Health grade for Waskaganish, because the national health survey doesn’t sample Région des Terres-Cries-de-la-Baie-James; life expectancy alone is too little to grade on, so no overall grade follows.
For 100% of homes in Waskaganish the nearest hospital is over 30 km off; from the town’s centre of population it is 132 km. Getting care ↓
Pharmacies far off
Picking up a prescription in Waskaganish takes a trip of 207 km on average to the nearest mapped pharmacy. Getting care ↓
More households under strain
Statistics Canada’s deprivation index places Waskaganish at 5.0 of 5 for situational vulnerability, close to the top band. The wider area ↓
Living past what deprivation predicts
For a deprivation score of 5.0, the trend across regions gives 73.6 years of life; Waskaganish’s region reaches 76.8. For its deprivation ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Health Grade
No Health grade is possible for Waskaganish
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.
76.8
life expectancy, region (typical town 81.5)
132 km
to a hospital, town’s residents (typical town 3.7 km)
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.
For its deprivation
Longer lives than deprivation would give: 3.2 years ahead of the trend
Regions, not towns, with every town in a region sharing its dot: of the 102, the marked one, Waskaganish’s, lies over the trend.
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 5.0, the expected figure is 73.6 years, and Waskaganish’s region does better with 76.8. Set beside its 10 nearest neighbours on the index, it trails the majority, 6 of 10; their median is 77.2 years. Income would point the wrong way: households in the region’s towns earn about $118,000, 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 Waskaganish, a hospital is 132 km away on average
Straight-line distances from each part of Waskaganish, weighted by who lives there.
Hospital
132 km
residents’ average distance
the typical Canadian town: 3.7 km
Clinic
1.0 km
community health centre or clinic, residents’ average
Pharmacy
207 km
residents’ average distance
0.0 within 3 km of a typical home
More than 30 km from a hospital
100%
share of residents
Emergency
911
police, fire, ambulance; 811 for health advice in most provinces
Compared with 5.3 km for the typical town in Quebec and 3.7 km for the typical Canadian town, Waskaganish is on the far side.
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
How to read these numbers
What this data can and can’t tell you
•
Distances are straight lines. Roads, rivers and ferries aren’t in it: the figure is a straight line from where people live, averaged over residents.
•
What counts as a hospital. A “hospital” here is whatever the provinces listed as one in Statistics Canada’s database, which can mean a site without an emergency department.
•
Deprivation is context. Deprivation is shown to set the scene and doesn’t count toward the grade; Statistics Canada left the territories out of the index.
Questions about health in Waskaganish
What is the life expectancy in Waskaganish?
Statistics Canada publishes it for Waskaganish’s health region only: 79.1 years for women and 73.1 for men (2022/2024).
How far is Waskaganish from a hospital?
A clinic is 1.0 km from the average resident of Waskaganish and a pharmacy 207 km, as the crow flies.
Does Waskaganish have a Health grade?
No Health grade is possible for Waskaganish: Région des Terres-Cries-de-la-Baie-James falls outside the survey’s published figures, and the overall grade needs Health.
Photo: Velatrix · CC0