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report

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

Mei Yang · Apr 1, 2025 ·

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

Population Well-being Lab · Aug 1, 2024 ·

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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Canadian Happiness Report (May 2022)

Population Well-being Lab · May 20, 2022 ·

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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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

Toronto Star interview on Canadian Happiness Report

Population Well-being Lab · Mar 29, 2022 ·

“So Canada placing 15th in the World Happiness Report is good, right? Not so fast, researchers say”

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

Our Canadian Happiness Report:

https://cheung.artsci.utoronto.ca/canadian-happiness-report-march-2022/

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: 
https://forms.office.com/r/N5S5YtV9Ab

Canadian Happiness Report (Mar 2022)

Population Well-being Lab · Mar 18, 2022 ·

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

Sign up for newsletters

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

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