Health regions and peer groups

View the most recent version.

"Health region" refers to administrative areas defined by the provincial ministries of health. For complete Canadian coverage, each of the northern territories also represents a health region.

See Table 1 Health regions in Canada – reference maps by province and territory.
See Map – Health regions 2007 by peer group

Health region boundary changes

Since June 2005, only minor changes to health regions have occurred.
See the following tables for history of changes since 2000:

Table 2-c Summary of changes to health region codes, names and boundaries, 2005 and 2007

Table 2-b Summary of changes to health region codes, names and boundaries, 2003 and 2005

Table 2-a Summary of Changes to health region codes, names and boundaries, 2000 and 2003

The publication "Health regions: boundaries and correspondence with census geography" describes the health region limits as of December 2007 and their correspondence with the 2006 and 2001 Census geography. However, some data tables within this publication continue to reflect the boundaries in effect as of 2005 and 2003. These will be updated as new data tables are produced with future issues.

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(for example, population change and demographic structure),
• living conditions(for example, socio-economic characteristics, housing, and income inequality), and
• working conditions(for example, labour market conditions).

Peer groups based on 2007 health region boundaries and 2006 Census data are now available. There are currently ten peer groups identified by letters A through J.

See Table 3 Health regions 2007 by peer group.
See Table 4 Summary table of peer groups and principal characteristics.

A more detailed discussion on the rationale and methods involved in the development of peer groups is available in "Health Region (2007) Peer Groups Working Paper".