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Health Profile – What are Peer Groups?

Statistics Canada developed an algorithm to assemble Canada's health regions into 'peer groups.' A peer group comprises health regions that have similar characteristics. In defining the peer groups, data from the 2006 Census of Population with a cluster analysis technique were used to examine the socio-demographic profiles of Canada's health regions. Health variables were deliberately not used in the delineation of health regions into peer groups. In total, 24 socio-demographic variables, in addition to prominent geographic characteristics, were used to delineate the 10 peer groups identified by letters A through J.

Peer groups are useful in the analysis of health regions, where important differences may be detected by comparing health regions within a peer group.

For more information, see the Summary table of peer groups and principal characteristics in the publication: Health Regions: Boundaries and Correspondence with Census Geography.