Ontario Second Highest Ranking Province in Conference Board's Health Report Card

OTTAWA, Feb. 12, 2015 /CNW/ - Ontario outperforms many advanced countries, ranking 7th out of 29 regions in The Conference Board of Canada's How Canada Performs: Health report card. This is the first report card to compare Canada, the 10 provinces, three territories, and 15 peer countries.

"Ontario does well on our health report card. It is the second highest ranking province, after British Columbia, and places higher than both Japan and the Netherlands," said Gabriela Prada, Director, Health Innovation, Policy and Evaluation. "The province's high ranking is, in part, thanks to the healthier lifestyles led by its residents. Ontario has amongst the lowest share of daily smokers and heavy drinkers in Canada. It also has a relatively low obesity rate that is below the national average."

HIGHLIGHTS

• Ontario receives a "B" grade and ranks seventh overall, ahead of Japan and the Netherlands.
• Ontario has one of the highest life expectancies and lowest premature mortality rates within Canada and among international peers.
• The province's lowest rankings are on infant mortality and mortality due to diabetes.

The How Canada Performs: Health report card assesses performance on 11 health status indicators.

Ontario finishes with a "B" grade on the overall health report card. The province scores "A" grades on four indicators: life expectancy, self-reported mental health, premature mortality, and suicides. Ontario has the second-highest life expectancy, the second-lowest premature mortality rate, and the lowest suicide rate in the country. On self-reported health, a measure of how people feel about their own health, Ontario was one of the five regions in Canada to receive an "A+" grade.

The province also earns four "B"s on: mortality due to cancer, heart disease and stroke, respiratory diseases, and nervous system diseases. Ontario does not score any "D" grades, but earns "C"s on mortality due to diabetes and infant mortality. Ontario's infant mortality rate of 4.9 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2011 was worse than that of 14 of Canada's peer countries.

How Canada Performs is an ongoing research program at The Conference Board of Canada to help leaders identify relative strengths and weaknesses in Canada's socio-economic performance. Six performance domains are assessed: Economy, Education and Skills, Innovation, Environment, Health, and Society.

Released today, and building on previous How Canada Performs analyses, the Health report card is the third of six to be produced on Canadian and provincial socio-economic performance. The Economy and Education and Skills report cards were published in 2014. The remaining report cards will follow over the year.

This is the first year that provincial and territorial rankings are included in the report cards. Further details, including information on data sources and the methodology behind the rankings, can be found on the How Canada Performs website.

Watch a video commentary by Gabriela Prada, Director, Health Innovation, Policy and Evaluation.

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SOURCE Conference Board of Canada

Juline Ranger, Associate Director of Communications, The Conference Board of Canada, Tel.: [phone] ext. 431, E-mail: [email protected]; Yvonne Squires, Media Relations, The Conference Board of Canada, Tel.: [phone] ext. 221, E-mail: [email protected]