Know
Your Region: Quality of Life
The
quality of life is clearly one of the advantages of living in
rural Saskatchewan generally and the Southwest in particular.
This is true not only for the residents but also for the economy.
In the survey of
businesses described in Section 6, for example, more than one
half of respondents felt that quality of life issues were very
important to the ongoing success of their business.
What constitutes a good quality of life, however, will vary
from person to person because there is no “standard definition”.
This difficulty is compounded by the relative lack of quantitative
information about quality of life issues.
This
section has statistical information about some aspects of the
quality of life in Southwest Saskatchewan although the information
is often not available for the specific Action Southwest region.
The topic areas covered include climate and health status (including
health behaviours).
Another typical quality of life issue – housing quality
and affordability – was addressed in the family and housing
part of this report (Section
3.2). Another – commuting to/from home and work –
was addressed in the employment section (Section
4.2). Some people view ethnic diversity as a quality of
life issue and this aspect of the Southwest is addressed in
Section
3.1.
Summary
In terms of climate, the southwest part of the province is,
compared with other parts of Saskatchewan:
• slightly warmer in the sense that averaged over the
course of the year, the temperature is 3.6oC compared with,
for example, 2.2oC in Saskatoon;
• no more or less dry with total precipitation averaging
38 cm compared with 35 cm in Saskatoon.
In the past few years, the temperature has been above average
and the precipitation near average. Hours of bright sunshine
and wind are more common in the southwest than in other parts
of Saskatchewan.
In terms of health status and health behaviours, southwest residents
12 years of age and older are generally similar although perhaps
somewhat healthier than other Saskatchewan residents.
• In 2007, 60% rated their physical health as “very
good” or “excellent” compared with 56% of
the Saskatchewan population.
• They are somewhat less likely (65% vs. 71%) to rate
their mental health as “very good” or “excellent”
but equally likely (18%) to say that there is quite a lot of
stress in their lives. A strong sense of belonging to their
community was reported by 74% of respondents compared with 68%
in the province as a whole.
• The incidence of physical health conditions that are
correlated with older age groups such as arthritis, diabetes,
and high blood pressure is higher in the southwest than in the
province as a whole.
• The proportion of persons who report a limitation in
the kind of activities in which they can participate is 33%,
a bit lower than the 35% for the province as a whole.
• Residents of the southwest are just as likely to be
overweight (52% are) as other Saskatchewanians. This will
be at least in part because only 45% report having an active
lifestyle. Fruit and vegetable
consumption is below the provincial average.
• Residents of the southwest are less likely than other
Saskatchewan residents to be smokers (19% are) or heavy drinkers
(15%).
• More than three quarters (76%) have had contact with
a health professional in the past year.
more
on... The
Quality of Life pdf.
