These Canadian provinces are the least satisfied with life

As a Canadian, are you satisfied with life in your corner of the country?

Whether it’s the high cost of living or the quality of physical and mental health your environment fosters, many factors might affect life satisfaction.

According to Statistics Canada’s latest data, close to half of Canadians reported a high life satisfaction in the first quarter of 2024.

The findings come from the government agency’s Quality of Life Hub, which produces the Quality of Life Framework for Canada.

“The Quality of Life Framework for Canada aims to measure what matters most to Canadians, to help drive evidence-based budgeting and decision-making at the federal level,” reads the StatsCan site.

The framework consists of 84 indicators, organized into a series of domains: prosperity, health, society, environment and good governance that all contribute to the quality of life for Canucks.

“Quality of life (well-being) refers to the wealth and comfort of individuals, communities and society based on both material and non-material factors that are important to people’s lives, such as health and social connections,” states StatsCan.

Daily Hive broke down the results of the agency’s “life satisfaction” survey for the latest period, Q1 2024, by Canadian province.

Survey participants were asked, “Using a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 means ‘Very dissatisfied’ and 10 means ‘Very satisfied,’ how do you feel about your life as a whole right now?”

The results were varied, with some parts of the country being less satisfied than others.

Nationally, across genders, 21.7% of Canadians reported having a bleak life satisfaction rating between 0 and five, but compared to the last quarter in 2023 (24.1%), it looks like things might be looking up.

Across the country, 48.6% of Canadians of all genders were highly satisfied with life, rating between eight and 10 in the survey. That’s around one percent higher than the 47.6% in the last quarter of 2023.

Are you wondering how your part of the country fared in life satisfaction? Here are the Canadian provinces that are least satisfied with life.

Ontario

If you live in this Canadian province, it might not surprise you that Ontarians are the least satisfied, with 25.5% of survey participants rating life between 0 and five.

It did come down two points from 27.4% in the fourth quarter of 2023, so there was an improvement there.

Nova Scotia

Following closely behind Ontarians are Nova Scotians, with 24.2% rating their life satisfaction between 0 and five. The rating has remained consistent since the last quarter of 2023.

Alberta

Fewer Albertans are least satisfied with life compared to Q4 of 2023, with 22.3% rating between 0 and five, up from 26.4%.

British Columbia

BC went down five percentage points when it comes to being home to the least satisfied Canadians, going from 25.8% in Q4 of 2023 to 20.7% in Q1 of 2024.

The most satisfied Canadian province

On a lighter note, Quebec takes the cake for the lowest number of unsatisfied residents.

Only 14.8% of Quebecers rated life satisfaction between 0 and five, and a whopping 58% of residents rated satisfaction between 8 and 10.

Over the years, people in Quebec have consistently reported the highest satisfaction levels in this Statistics Canada survey.

For more in-depth information, check out this interactive tool by the national statistics agency or look at regional stats here.

Do you agree with these findings? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments.

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