People in Toronto are more miserable than elsewhere in Canada
Residents of Toronto are less satisfied with their quality of life than almost anywhere else in Canada, according to new data from StatsCan, with certain segments of the city’s population proving particularly worse off in recent years.
Per a report released by the government agency this week, people living in TO and Vancouver are far less likely to report “a strong sense of belonging to their community” or “high life satisfaction” than people living elsewhere in their respective provinces.
This brought Ontario and BC’s stats for the perception of quality of life down compared to Canada’s average, with only 48.3% of Ontarians and 48% of British Columbians considering themselves happy and fulfilled compared to 51.7% of Canadians overall.
In Toronto, this figure was only 46%, and in Vancouver, an even worse 45.1%.
Renters specifically were the least happy nationwide, with financial pressures, especially those associated with keeping a roof over their heads, being a key factor.
“When compared with homeowners, renters were over 15 percentage points more likely to report difficulty meeting financial needs and over 11 percentage points less likely to report high overall life satisfaction,” the report reads
Tenants were also less likely to report a strong sense of belonging to their community and were more likely to report feelings of loneliness,” continues the report.
Housing pressures are worse in the nation’s two most expensive cities, where far more residents are struggling to cover rent or mortgage costs that they can’t actually afford.
“In both Toronto and Vancouver, housing is significantly less affordable than the national average,” StatsCan writes of its 2021-2022 study, which found that 20.9% of households in Canada live in unaffordable housing circumstances, and 7.7% are devoting more than half of their income to rent or a mortgage.
Comparatively, a whopping 30.3% of Toronto households could be considered living in unaffordable housing circumstances, while 12.6% are spending at least half of their income on shelter costs (Vancouver had similar figures).
Younger Canadians, too — who are more likely to be renters — were also found to be less content than their older counterparts.
Less than half — only 47.2% — of participants under the age of 55 said they had high overall life satisfaction (compared to 58.2% over the age of 55), and only 44.8% said they had very good or excellent mental health (versus 55.1% of respondents over 55).
Overall happiness for younger groups is also trending downward, with StatsCan noting that between its studies in 2016 and 2021/2022, “youth aged 15 to 29, in particular, were less satisfied and less hopeful about the future than in previous years, and were more likely to feel lonely than older Canadians.”
“Younger Canadians tend to face greater challenges than older age groups when it comes to shelter costs,” it continued, adding that “nearly two-thirds of Canadians aged 15 to 29 rented their home, and spent more of their income on shelter costs than did Canadians in the older age groups.”
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