It's the good the bad and the ugly of Waterloo Region's day to day life. 

The second annual Vital Signs study was released today by the Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation and other agencies.

Among the stats gathered into 11 key areas in the 2008 report:

Our obesity rate is up to 17-per cent, higher than provincial and national averages, while our activity levels are decreasing, now lower than those averages.

The Region has a doctor shortage, one in five residents smoke, we have terrible air quality, but local workers take fewer sick days than the rest of the country. 

Illiteracy is high here, as are the number of children approaching school age who are not ready for school. 

But violent crime rates are low, as is local unemployment.

There are a lot of arts and culture opportunities here, bit people aren't aware of them.

K-W Community Foundation CEO, Rosemary Smith says to change the study's statistics into action, you start with public awareness.

570News – Waterloo Region’s Vital Signs.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 at 11:41 am and is filed under Children and Youth, Community Development, Community Foundations, Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.