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Health Indicators
November 2003
Catalogue no. 82-221-XIE, Volume 2003, No. 2

Health regions

Health region peer groups
Recent changes in health region boundaries and names

‘Health region’ refers to a geographic unit defined by the provincial ministries of health. They are legislated administrative areas in all provinces except Nova Scotia. For complete Canadian coverage, each of the northern territories also represents a health region.

List of health regions, in effect as of June 2003 (PDF)

The following table presents an overview of health regions in Canada, by province and territory and links to maps (jpeg or pdf) for viewing current boundaries.

Health regions (2003) in Canada

(1) In Nova Scotia, health zones are aggregations of the nine district health authorities.

(2) Public health units (PHU) administer health promotion and disease prevention programs. District health councils (DHC) are advisory, health planning organizations that make recommendations on resource distribution and provide advice on integration of health services in their community.

Health region peer groups

In order to effectively compare health regions with similar socio-economic characteristics, health regions have been grouped into ‘peer groups’. Statistics Canada used a statistical method to achieve maximum statistical differentiation between health regions. Twenty-four variables were chosen to cover as many of the social and economic determinants of health as possible, using data collected at the health region level mostly from the Census of Canada. Concepts covered include:

• basic demographics (i.e., population change and demographic structure),
  
• living conditions (i.e., socio-economic characteristics, housing, and income inequality), and
  
• working conditions (i.e., labour market conditions)

A more detailed discussion on the rationale and methods involved in the development of peer groups is available in the Health Region (2000) Peer Groups Working Paper (PDF).

Peer groups based on the latest health region boundaries and 2001 Census data are now available. There are currently nine peer groups identified by letters A through I.

List of health regions by peer group (PDF)

Map of latest peer groups (PDF)

The following summary table provides an overview of the principle variables used to establish the groups.

Recent changes in health region boundaries and names

There have been a number of changes affecting the health region geography in recent years. To ensure comparability across data tables in Health Indicators, the boundaries established in 2000 were set as a fixed reference for the first three years of the project. The health region geography and data coding tools have recently been revised to reflect the most current boundaries. The following table provides a summary of the changes since 2000. For more detailed information about health regions and health region changes, see Health regions: boundaries and correspondence with census geography, Cat. no 82-402-XIE.

Summary of changes to health regions, 2000 and 2003

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