Publications

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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The Canadian Happiness Report series is dedicated to communicating empirical findings on Canadians’ wellbeing to the public. Our goal is to aid in developing a rigorous and effective QoL framework for Canada using the latest data and methods. In the first report, we found that Canadian well-being has been on a downturn since the late 2000s. In this report, we document well-being inequalities across demographics and capture the current variation in some key indicators that make up the Department of Finance’s QoL framework. Our next report will feature an in-depth review of community and population-scale QoL interventions which could be used in Canada to reverse the decline in well-being.

OSF link: https://osf.io/d837y

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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This report will be the first in a series where we present our findings on Canadians’ well-being. Going forward, we will be exploring topics such as well-being trends across provinces and well-being inequality. These more detailed analyses will serve to build a comprehensive and fine-grained understanding of changes in Canadians’ well-being over time. They will also measure disparities of happiness across Canada, which can be used for more effective policy implementation by the Canadian government.

OSF link: https://osf.io/u7dxh/

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

Toronto Star interview on Canadian Happiness Report (Mar 2022)

https://www.thestar.com/life/health_wellness/2022/03/28/so-canada-placing-15th-in-the-world-happiness-report-is-good-right-no-so-fast-researchers-say.html

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If you would like to receive newsletters from our lab where we will present our latest findings along with other engaging content sign up here: http://eepurl.com/h7lX4r