Study: Health of Canadians living in census metropolitan areas

Canadians enjoy longer life and generally better health than people in many other industrialized countries. However, the status of their health is by no means evenly distributed across the country's major urban centres, according to a new report.

This report, the second in a series that develops statistical measures to shed light on issues of importance for Canada's largest urban areas, paints a statistical portrait of health in 25 census metropolitan areas (CMAs).

First, Canada's urban centres differ as widely as many of the world's industrialized countries do in terms of health outcomes, such as life expectancy at birth. The range in life expectancy among Canada's urban centres is nearly as large as the range among a number of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.

Next, there is a wide variation among the largest urban areas in terms of health-related lifestyles and behaviours, their health conditions and their health care needs.

In 2000, Canada ranked fifth on a list of 22 OECD countries in terms of life expectancy at birth, a key indicator of a population's health status. A Canadian born in 2000 could expect to live 79.4 years.

Among the 25 CMAs examined in the report, life expectancy was highest in Vancouver at 81.1 years, with Toronto and Victoria close behind, and lowest in Greater Sudbury at 76.7 years. This put Vancouver and Toronto on a par with the top two OECD countries, Japan and Switzerland; while Sudbury's life expectancy was in the same range as Denmark, the United States, Ireland and Portugal.

In general, the data showed that life expectancy of residents in metropolitan areas was negatively associated with smoking rates, heavy drinking rates, obesity rates and high blood pressure rates. Life expectancy in urban areas was positively associated with post-secondary education, household income and shares of recent immigrants.

Urban centres differed widely in their level of self-rated health, as reported by the 2000/01 Canadian Community Health Survey. The areas with the lowest proportion of residents who reported their health as good or better were all in Ontario: Greater Sudbury, Thunder Bay and Windsor.

On the other hand, the urban centres with the highest proportion of residents reporting their health as good or better were Québec, Chicoutimi-Jonquière and Calgary. Still, the gap from lowest to highest was relatively narrow, only about eight percentage points.

In terms of leisure time, Victoria and Vancouver had the most physically active populations, while Sherbrooke had the least physically active population.

Nearly one-fifth (19%) of Windsor residents reported unmet health care needs, the highest among all CMAs. Vancouver, Toronto and Québec had rates of self-perceived unmet health care needs that were significantly lower than the national average.

Note: The objective of this series is to provide statistical measures of trends and conditions in Canada's urban centres and the neighbourhoods within them. These measures will be available for use in city planning and in policy development. Statistics Canada has worked on this project in collaboration with the Cities Secretariat of the Privy Council Office.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey numbers, including related surveys, 3226, 3233 and 3901.

The second research paper in the new series Trends and Conditions in Census Metropolitan Areas, "Health of Canadians living in census metropolitan areas" (89-613-MIE2004002, free), is now available online. To access the series, go to the home page, select Studies on the left sidebar, then under Browse periodical and series, choose Free and for sale.

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Jason Gilmore (613-951-7118, jason.gilmore@statcan.gc.ca), Health Statistics Division.