City dwellers healthier than country folk: StatsCan

Canadians living in small towns, rural regions and northern areas have more health problems than those in cities, a Statistics Canada report says.

The report found that smoking and obesity were more prevalent in rural and northern regions than in large cities.

As well, the northern regions of Canada had a higher-than-average proportion of the population which suffered from depression and high blood pressure, the study said.

And people in rural regions and small cities were more likely to have either arthritis or rheumatism, even when the age of those populations was taken into account.

According to the survey of more than 130,000 people aged 12 and older, 29 per cent of people living near large cities said their health was excellent.

This compares to only 20 per cent of people in rural regions and 21 per cent of those in northern regions.

The data also showed that 33 per cent of people aged 12 or older in northern regions smoked, as did 32 per cent of those living in rural areas.

Only 22 per cent of city dwellers smoked.

The percentage of overweight people also increased in rural areas.

Almost 27 per cent of people in cities aged 20 to 64 were either overweight or obese, compared to more than 40 per cent in rural and northern regions.