Health of Canadians Living in Census Metropolitan Areas
by Jason Gilmore
Health Statistics Division
Trends and Conditions in Census Metropolitan Areas
July 2004, Catalogue
No. 89-613 No. 2
Context
Canadians enjoy longer life and generally better health than people
in many other industrialized countries. However, their health status
os by no means evenly distributed across the country’s major urban
centres.
Objective(s)
This report paints a statistical portrait of health in 25 census metropolitan
areas (CMAs).
Findings
Canada's urban centres differ widely in terms of health outcomes,
such as life expectancy at birth. Life expectancy was highest in Vancouver
(81.1 years) with Toronto and Victoria close behind and lowest in Greater
Sudbury (76.7).
There is a wide variation among the largest urban areas in terms of
health-related lifestyles, behaviours, their health conditions and their
health care needs. Life expectancy 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 areas differed widely in their level of self-reported health.
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, Chicoutim-Jonquière and Calgary.
In terms of leisure time, Victoria and Quebec had the most physically
active populations while Sherbrooke had the least physically active
population.
Nearly one-fifth 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.
Data source(s)
Census 2001, Canadian Community Health
Survey 2000/2001.
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