Canada - Wellbeing

OECD Better Life Index

Canada performs very well relative to most other countries in the Better Life Index. It ranks above average in all of the measurements and 4th overall.

Metric	Score
Housing	7.8
Income	5.4
Jobs	8.0
Community	7.6
Education	7.9
Environment	8.3
Civic engagement	6.8
Health	9.6
Life Satisfaction	9.1
Safety	9.1
Work-Life Balance	7.3

Table 1: Canada’s score in each of the OECD better life index’s categories

Canada performs significantly well at health, with a life expectancy of 82 years, two years higher than the OECD average of 80 years. The level of atmospheric PM2.5 is 7.3 micrograms per cubic meter, lower than the OECD average of 13.9 micrograms per cubic meter. Canada also does well in terms of water quality, as 91% of people say they are satisfied with the quality of their water, more than the OECD average of 81%.

Canadians are also more satisfied with their lives than the OECD average. When asked to rate their general satisfaction with life on a scale from 0 to 10, Canadians gave it a 7.4 grade on average, higher than the OECD average of 6.5.

Money, while it cannot buy happiness, is an important means to achieving higher living standards. In Canada, the average household net-adjusted disposable income per capita is USD 30 854 a year, lower than the OECD average of USD 33 604 a year. But there is a considerable gap between the richest and poorest – the top 20% of the population earn about six times as much as the bottom 20%.

Although only 4% of Canadians work very long hours, less than the OECD average of 11%, they only devote 14.6 hours to personal care and leisure, slightly lower than the OECD average of 15 hours. They also have a significant gender disparity, with males working the majority of the long hours compared to women.

Happiness Index

In the world happiness report’s Happiness Index, Canada also performs similarly well, placing 14th out of the 196 countries considered. Although it’s placing is significantly lower than in the OECD Better Life Index, percentage-wise, it actually performs better, placing above the 95th percentile in the World Happiness Index compared to just below the 90th percentile in the OECD Better Life Index.

The World Happiness Index is much more concerned with how individuals perceive their own happiness than their actual well-being. While this can be considered subjective, at the end of the day how well someone perceives their life is going can be more impactful to their total well-being than how well-off they are (compared to others). In any case, Canada performs excellently in both metrics.

Graph 1: Canada’s Human Development Index vs. its Happiness Index plotted with time

It is interesting, however, to note that Canada’s Happiness Index has decreased on average across the last 15 years. Even though its Human Development Index has steadily increased, reaching above 0.92 in 2019, the Happiness Index has decreased from 74.2 to  71.8. Perhaps having more material goods has made society more materialistic as a whole, causing total happiness to decrease. Increased social instability and political conflict may have also led to a decreasing total Happiness Index, a trend that may be mirrored and experienced by other countries as they continue to develop. Truly, money doesn’t always buy happiness.

Happy Planet Index

The Happy Planet Index is a more long-term and objective attempt to interpret the findings of the World Happiness Index, combining it with average life expectancy, inequality and ecological footprint to get a weighted score for each country. In this metric, although Canada performs excellently in life expectancy and inequality as well, the country places 85th due to its large ecological footprint (136th out of the 140 countries measured), It is to be noted, however, that the happiness score used here (which should be solely based on the world Happiness Index) differs from the ranking found in the 2020 report, potentially suggesting that old data has been used (and Canada may place even lower).

Category	Amount	Relative Ranking
Average Life Expectancy	81.7 years	11th
Happiness Index	7.4 / 10	7th
Ecological Footprint	8.2 global hectares / person	136th
Inequality	9%	17th

The significant ecological cost that comes with such a high happiness indicates a conflict of interests between present happiness and future happiness, with the environment being sacrificed to satisfy people’s present wants and needs. Clearly then, Canada’s model for achieving happiness is not sustainable on a global scale, and even within Canada itself, so the country must look for ways to maintain current happiness without jeopardizing the future. This is an extremely difficult task that requires societal attention and cooperation, but with the democratic structure of Canada’s government, it seems challenging for any long-term oriented initiatives to pass legislation, especially with the incumbent politicians oriented towards current needs in order to get re-elected. How Canada deals with improving the balance between current and future happiness levels is an extremely difficult but interesting problem to watch out for in the coming years.