92 per cent of Canadians satisfied with their lives
The Canadian Press
Date: Tuesday Nov. 23, 2010 4:00 PM ET
OTTAWA — A new study of life satisfaction in Canada finds that among the provinces, Prince Edward Island takes the happiness crown.
The study released Tuesday by the Centre for the Study of Living Standards found that on a scale of one to five, the average level of happiness among Canadians aged 20 and over was 4.26 in 2007-08.
At the provincial level, life satisfaction was highest in P.E.I. at 4.33 and lowest in Ontario at 4.23.
In 2009, 92.1 per cent of the population aged 12 and over were either satisfied or very satisfied with their lives, up slightly from 91.4 per cent in 2008.
The study also looked at factors influencing the happiness or life satisfaction of Canadians, and found that it's not all about money.
In fact, household income was found to carry less economic significance for happiness than other variables like mental health.
A sense of belonging to the local community was a key determinant of individual life satisfaction, while high stress levels were linked to lower life satisfaction.
Being out of work also had a negative impact on people's happiness.
The study found relative to household income, moving from unemployment to employment has the same impact on happiness as a 151 per cent increase in income for the average person.
2 comments:
I believe it. I think you live in an awesome part of the world, for many reasons.
Hi Anne: Happy American Thanksgiving. Interesting findings. Another less well known finding is that Canadians are very heavily involved in volunteerism and give extremely generously to support charitable causes. More surprising still, in the Atlantic provinces, which are also the poorer provinces in this country,the figures are higher for both than for the rest of the country.
I'm afraid we have think tanks in Canada supported by right wing business and political interests whose scientific findings may be suspect, but perhaps they are quieter about promoting their agendas.
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