Photo: Maxime Laterreur · CC BY 4.0For health, Waterloo is ahead of 85% of Canadian towns
The survey puts the region’s share in very good or excellent health at 57%; Quebec as a whole is at 57%. What sets Waterloo apart within its region is a longer trip to hospital, 17 km for the average resident (3.7 km typical). Waterloo grades A for health, #301 of 503 in Quebec and #910 of 2,583 Canadian towns.
What stands out about health in Waterloo
Hospital care at a distance
For 0% of homes in Waterloo the nearest hospital is over 30 km off; from the town’s centre of population it is 17 km. Getting care ↓
Beating its deprivation on life expectancy
Set against regions as deprived (3.0), Waterloo’s region gains years: 82.9 where the trend says 81.0. For its deprivation ↓
Less chronic 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
Life expectancy in the region around Waterloo runs 1.4 years ahead of the typical Canadian town’s, and at 65 people can expect 21.2 more years (2022/2024). The wider area ↓
Survey and life expectancy: the health region (Statistics Canada). Distances and deprivation: the town’s own areas.
Waterloo 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. Its place: #301 of 503 in Quebec and #910 of 2,583 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.
From Waterloo, a hospital is 17 km away on average
Measured from where the town’s residents live, so this part is Waterloo’s own, not the region’s.
Waterloo 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.
Longer-lived than its deprivation suggests, by 1.9 years
102 dots, 102 health regions: no town has its own life expectancy here, and Waterloo’s region shows above the trend.
Use the deprivation index alone and Waterloo’s region, at 3.0, should live about 81.0 years, the trend through 102 regions (correlation −0.83), and it reaches 82.9. Its 10 closest matches on deprivation lean shorter-lived: 9 of them below it, a median of 80.4. A household income of about $67,000, 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.
19% of the region’s adults have high blood pressure and 9.1% 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
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 Waterloo’s own areas.
Life expectancy: Statistics Canada table 13-10-0988, three-year estimate 2022/2024, by health region.
56% in the region call their health very good or excellent, close to Quebec (56%)
The survey’s answers for the region as given, each beside the province’s (the tick).
Share of adults, as answered · 2023/2024
Mental wellbeing sits at the provincial level, 63% very good or excellent against 64% for Quebec; stress is a daily matter for 20%.
Canadian Community Health Survey 2023/2024 (Statistics Canada table 13-10-0972), adults 18 and over, as published.
Among 40 towns its size, Waterloo is 35th nearest a hospital
Ordered by residents’ distance to a hospital: 40 Canadian towns of 5,616 to 5,796 people, median 3.7 km.
| # | Town | People | Hospital | Very good health |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Meadow Lake SK C | 5,667 | 0.6 km | 46% |
| 2 | Vieux-Québec—Cap-Blanc—Colline parlementaire QC A+ | 5,764 | 0.7 km | 62% |
| 3 | Montcalm MB B+ | 5,676 | 0.8 km | 52% |
| 33 | Saint-Roch-de-l'Achigan QC B+ | 5,675 | 16 km | 56% |
| 34 | Seguin ON D | 5,761 | 17 km | 47% |
| 35 | Waterloo QC A | 5,714 | 17 km | 57% |
| 36 | Memramcook NB C | 5,616 | 17 km | 43% |
| 37 | Osoyoos BC B− | 5,724 | 18 km | 52% |
| 40 | Chertsey QC B | 5,678 | 30 km | 56% |
The region’s very good or excellent health column is regional: towns in one region share it.
Health in the places around Waterloo
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waterloo | 17 km | 57% | 82.9 | A |
| Shefford 8.3 km | 10 km | 57% | 82.9 | A |
| Stukely-Sud 10 km | 22 km | 57% | 82.9 | A− |
| Bromont 12 km | 11 km | 57% | 82.9 | A |
| Saint-Joachim-de-Shefford 12 km | 15 km | 57% | 82.9 | A |
| Lac-Brome 12 km | 14 km | 57% | 82.9 | A |
| Granby 18 km | 2.6 km | 57% | 82.9 | A+ |
Only the hospital column is local here: Waterloo and its neighbours share one health region’s survey. Granby is the closest to care, 2.6 km to Waterloo’s 17 km.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- 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. 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Deprivation is context. Statistics Canada’s 2021 deprivation index describes the town’s own areas for context only, with no index for the territories.
- Regional figures. Statistics Canada reports the survey and life expectancy by health region, not by town: Waterloo shares them with its neighbours, while the distances are measured for it alone.
Questions about health in Waterloo
How far is Waterloo from a hospital?
A clinic is 1.1 km from the average resident of Waterloo and a pharmacy 1.0 km, as the crow flies.
How is Waterloo’s Health Grade worked out?
Canada’s grades haven’t been set, so Waterloo has none yet; when they are, Health will set its region and its hospital distance against the typical Canadian town.
How healthy is Waterloo?
More of the region’s survey and life-expectancy figures beat the typical Canadian town than trail it. Chronic conditions there average 14% across arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure.
What is the life expectancy in Waterloo?
Life expectancy comes by health region: 84.8 for women, 81.0 for men around Waterloo (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).