Population Well-Being Lab

News

Felix Cheung and Yeeun Archer Lee Co-Authored Chapter in 2025 World Happiness Report

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We’re proud to share that our PI, Dr. Felix Cheung, and former postdoctoral fellow Dr. Yeeun Archer Lee (now Assistant Professor at Trinity Western University) co-authored a chapter in the 2025 World Happiness Report, released on the UN’s International Day of Happiness. Their chapter, titled “Caring and Sharing: Global Analysis of Happiness and Kindness,” highlights the powerful role of benevolence—trusting and helping others—in fostering both individual and societal well-being. Their work has garnered significant media attention, with features in outlets such as CNN Health, CBC News, and UofT Arts & Science News, which praised the findings for offering hope in a time of global pessimism. The research reveals that acts of kindness are more common than we think—and more important to our happiness than we realize. Congratulations to Felix and Yeeun on this meaningful and widely reported contribution!

Media Coverage

Click the images or titles below to read more about the coverage of Felix and Yeeun’s work in the World Happiness Report:

📰 UofT Arts & Science News

“Trusting your neighbour is key to happiness, according to World Happiness Report“

📰 CNN Health

“Kindness will make you happier than a higher salary, report shows“

📰 CBC News

“Canada drops to 18th in 2025 World Happiness Report rank, among the ‘largest losers’“

Also featured in: The Pinnacle Gazette, 9News, CityNews, and other national and international outlets.

Canadian Happiness Report 2024

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In the first series of Canadian Happiness Reports published in 2022, we drew attention to the downward trend of Canadians’ evaluations of their quality of life since the early-2010s and the well-being disparities that exist in Canada. Since then, there has been a growing concern about declining standards of living in Canada (e.g., inflation, home prices have soared, overburdened health services, and a mental health crisis especially among young people). While we as a country look to address these and other disparate issues with limited resources, we believe it is especially important to understand how Canadians’ well-being is changing and who in Canada is most and least satisfied with their lives. Therefore, in this report, we investigate trends in Canadian well-being over time and across provinces, identify at-risk groups in Canada experiencing low well-being, and Understand trends in Canadian youth well-being. We also examine the limitations of studying and measuring well-being in Canada.

OSF link: https://osf.io/rdzhy/

For optimal viewing, please download the full report from OSF, as some formatting may not display correctly in the embedded viewer on this site.

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McGill-UofT Wellbeing Seminar Launch

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Seminar Schedule

Sign up via our Zoom registration page and add the seminar dates to your Google Calendar.

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The McGill-UofT Wellbeing Seminar hosts a series of open online talks and discussions with leading researchers in the realm of wellbeing across a variety of disciplines. This seminar series, held at noon on the first (or occasionally second) Monday of every month seeks to accomplish two goals:

First, it provides an opportunity for discourse and community in the quickly growing field of wellbeing science that is spread across a range of institutions. Conveniently scheduled for researchers in the Americas and accessible to Europe and other timezones, these seminars allow researchers distantly located to exchange ideas and expose young researchers around the world to the state-of-the-art in wellbeing science, no matter their institution.

Second, we take an interdiscplinary perspective to match the particular nature of wellbeing science. As researchers in economics, psychology, sociology, public health, and policy are exposed to each other’s research, there is promise for collaborations that will improve wellbeing work in each of these fields.

All are welcome to attend. Events are hosted online, using the Zoom platform from noon-1pm Toronto/Montreal/New York time, 9am in Vancouver/San Francisco, 5pm in London (subject to occasional timezone changes). ‘Doors’ open on the hour, the seminar begins five minutes after the hour and runs for 55 minutes.

Wellbeing Distributions: The Democratic Way to Measure Happiness

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Last month, the What Works Centre for Wellbeing released a report suggesting that when we talk about wellbeing, we should consider not only the average wellbeing in a population but also how that wellbeing is distributed. We strongly support this suggestion but note that choosing a metric for wellbeing inequality shares the same shortcomings as reporting only average well-being: it makes implicit value judgments about what information is important. Seeing as early measures often become widely adopted (e.g. GDP), we believe we have a chance to build a new norm of presenting full wellbeing distributions alongside familiar measures, allowing for individuals and their representatives in government to self-determine what qualities of the wellbeing distribution matter to them.

Wellbeing-Distributions-ReportDownload

DOI: https://osf.io/hg2a8/

SPSP 2023 in Atlanta!

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The Population Well-being Lab attended SPSP 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia last month! This marked the lab’s first-in person SPSP and many of the lab members’ first in-person conference. We are so proud of our presenters! 

First, Felix Cheung was one of the co-organizers of the Happiness and Well-being Preconference. We had Levi, Elizabeth, Sofia, and Anthony present their work in data blitz talks! 

Caption: Felix Cheung and Milla Titova, the co-organizers of the Happiness and Well-being Preconference 

Caption: Levi presented his work on the link between democratic backsliding and well-being 

Caption: Elizabeth presented her work on the impact of the Euromaidan on Ukrainian well-being 

Caption: Sofia presented her work on whether certain well-being profiles predict better well-being 

Caption: Anthony presented his work on the link between allocation of government expenditure and well-being 

Sofia also plugged a call for interventions in collaboration with the Intelligent Adaptive Interventions Lab to crowdsource interventions to improve short-term well-being. Five submissions will be accepted and implemented, and the submission form closes on March 23rd. Submissions from early-career and more seasoned researchers are welcome. Check out the website for more information: https://www.easiwellbeing.com/  

Elisabetta, Karina, and Anthony presented their posters: 

Caption: Elisabetta presented her work on global stress trends 

Caption: Karina presented her work on the link between racial composition in the U.S. and well-being 

Caption: Anthony presented his work on the link between allocation of government expenditure and well-being 

Finally, Elizabeth chaired a symposium, “Promoting well-being through awe, mindfulness, intergenerational connections, and time use” and presented her work on how reallocating leisure time affects well-being 

With many of us being foodies, we also happily explored the food scene in Atlanta and enjoyed Southern barbecue, ice cream, and Persian food!