When it comes to general happiness, the 2024 report shows that Canadians are a pretty content batch. However, this year’s World Happiness Report shows that when dug deeper, the kids are found to be not happy. “Canada is on a bit of a long-term trend of declining overall life expectations,” said Chris Barrington-Leigh, an associate professor at McGill University’s Department of Equity, ethics, and Policy. “We have a very, very unhappy youth,” he continued. To make the report, they take data from the Gallup World Poll of people from more than 140 countries. Then the countries are ranked by their average life evaluations over the three previous years, in this case, 2021-23.

To get the data people are asked to evaluate their life as a whole. About 1,000 responses are gathered for each country annually and the Happiness rankings are done based on the average of three years. Canada drops two spots on this year’s ranking falling to 15th on the ranking overall. While it is still in the top 20, a deeper look at how different age groups feel about their happiness may shed some insight. Canadians in the age group under 30 ranked their happiness to the point where the country was ranked number eight. However, it falls drastically to the 58th spot when looking at how those under 30 answered.

Barrington-Leigh suggested part of what is causing this decrease in happiness in youth might include feeling less support from family and friends when needed. At the same time, there might also be a lack of trust in the government, as well as more stress and anxiety. “One of the securities that are important for life satisfaction is just stability, feeling safe,” he said. “That has something to do with knowing what’s coming and that is very naturally harder for the youth because they don’t have a long past to look at.” The report also shows that “life satisfaction evidence is matched by other evidence of a mid-life crisis.”

Felix Cheung, who holds Canada’s research chair in population well-being, would refrain from using the term. Even though he noted that there could be parallels and said more youth are reflecting on achievable success. “One possible reason why we’re seeing this decline in happiness among youth is that I think we need to really think about whether or not our younger folks feel hard work can bring success,” he said. He also added the cost of living and housing affordability might be the reason why people are feeling like they need to work hard but it will not necessarily get them to achieve what they consider a “good life.” In the same ranking, the U.S. also took enough of a dip and dropped below the top 20 for the first time. The American youth ranked at 62 while those above 60 pushed it to 10. Finland got to the number one spot, for the seventh time in a row while Denmark came in second.

Phillip Goodwin

Phillip Goodwin graduated in 2007 from reputable University majoring in Economics and Accounting. In the past years, he has gathered an immense amount of experience and written for other financial sites and published independent investment research, primarily on initiative companies and new entrepreneurs. He has been working in the writing industry for the last 4 years. He has a motivational persona and trains staff on the finer points of writing, editing and getting the news out on time. Address:  1635 Rainbow Road Arcadia, CA 91006,Unites states of America Contact Number:  (+1) 626-254-4709 Email: [email protected]