Health regions and peer groups

"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 6 Health regions in Canada – reference maps by province and territory
See Map – Health regions 2013 by peer group

Health region boundary changes

• Since May 2013, no changes to health regions have occurred. The boundary files for all health regions have been reconciled to the 2011 version of Statistics Canada's geographic frame.

See the following tables for history of changes since 2000:

Table 7-e Summary of changes to health region codes, names and boundaries, 2011 and 2013
Table 7-d Summary of changes to health region codes, names and boundaries, 2007 and 2011
Table 7-c Summary of changes to health region codes, names and boundaries, 2005 and 2007
Table 7-b Summary of changes to health region codes, names and boundaries, 2003 and 2005
Table 7-a Summary of Changes to health region codes, names and boundaries, 2000 and 2003

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 2013 health region boundaries and 2006 Census data are now available. There are currently ten peer groups identified by letters A through J.

See Table 8 Health regions 2013 by peer group
See Table 9 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 – User guide.