Census Profile – What are Health Regions?

'Health Region' refers to administrative areas defined by the provincial ministries of health. Unincorporated places and some municipalities in Ontario and in the Western provinces may be associated with more than one Health Region. The health region names and boundaries are those in effect as of October 2013.

As of May 2012, data for Prince Edward Island are disseminated at the provincial level only.

Minor name and code changes have been made to Nova Scotia health regions. For example, Zone 1 is now called South Shore/South West Nova while DHA 9 is now referred to as the Capital District Health Authority.

For Alberta, some indicators are now disseminated at five new Zone levels. These five new zones were approved for use in November 2010 in Alberta by the Joint Alberta Health Services - Alberta Health and Wellness Geographies Committee and are aggregations of the previous nine Regional Health Authorities.

The province of New Brunswick has made minor name changes to its health regions. The Regions are now referred to as Zones. In addition, a descriptive name for each Zone has been added. For example, Zone 1 will now be referred to as "Zone 1 (Moncton)".

In Ontario, Public Health Units (PHU) administer health promotion and disease prevention programs. Local Health Integration Networks (LHIN) are responsible for planning, funding and administering health care programs and services across the province. Health region data are provided for both PHUs and LHINs.

As a result of changes to Health Region geography in Manitoba in 2012, data are presented by Regional Health Authority (RHA). The 11 Health Regions in Manitoba were merged into 5 RHAs as follows:

• Winnipeg RHA (4610 A) and Churchill RHA (4690 F) were merged to form Winnipeg RHA (4601 A);
• Assiniboine RHA (4645 D), Parkland RHA (4660 D) and Brandon RHA (4615 A) were merged to form Prairie Mountain Health (4602 D);
• Interlake RHA (4630 E) and North Eastman RHA (4620 E) were merged to form Interlake-Eastern RHA (4603 E);
• NOR-MAN RHA, (4670 H) and Burntwood RHA (4680 F) were merged to form 4604 F Northern RHA;
• Central RHA (4640 D) and South Eastman RHA (4625 E) were merged to form Southern Health (4605 D).

In British Columbia, health regions (referred to as Health Service Delivery Areas) aggregate to Health Authorities. The third digit of the health region code represents the Health Authority:

• 591 Interior Health Authority = 5911 East Kootenay, 5912 Kootenay-Boundary, 5913 Okanagan, 5914 Thompson/Cariboo
• 592 Fraser Health Authority = 5921 Fraser East, 5922 Fraser North, 5923 Fraser South
• 593 Vancouver Coastal Health Authority = 5931 Richmond, 5932 Vancouver, 5933 North Shore/Coast Garibaldi
• 594 Vancouver Island Health Authority = 5941 South Vancouver Island, 5942 Central Vancouver Island, 5943 North Vancouver Island
• 595 Northern Health Authority = 5951 Northwest, 5952 Northern Interior, 5953 Northeast.

For more information, see Health regions: boundaries and correspondence with census geography (December 2013) and Health regions in Canada - reference maps by province and territory (December 2013).