Canada is now ranked at 15th place in the yearly World Happiness Report.
Canada is now ranked lower than Costa Rica, Kuwait, and Austria, dropping from 13th place last year.
John Helliwell, a Canadian economist and founding editor of the World Happiness Report, said on Wednesday that in Canada and the United States, younger people are not as happy as they were 10 or 12 years ago.
“The older people have not experienced many changes, and their life circumstances have stayed the same. This is causing them anxiety. ”
The report looks at information from 140 countries and uses six important factors to understand how people feel about their lives: how much money they have, how much support they get from others, how long they are expected to live, how much freedom they have, how generous they are, and how they feel about corruption. The 2024 report was the first to rank people by age, showing big differences between young and old in some countries.
Helliwell, a retired professor from the University of British Columbia, thinks that bad news in English media, especially on social media, is one reason why Canada is less happy now.
“We looked and asked, ‘How does this work in Quebec. ‘ Because Quebec is more focused on French-language media,” Helliwell explained in simpler words. “In fact, the decrease in young people in Quebec is only half as much as the decrease in the rest of Canada. ”
The top 20 list
According to the 2024 World Happiness Report, the top 20 happiest countries in the world are:
- Finland;
- Denmark;
- Iceland;
- Sweden;
- Israel;
- Netherlands;
- Norway;
- Luxembourg
- Switzerland;
- Australia;
- New Zealand;
- Costa Rica;
- Kuwait;
- Austria;
- Canada;
- Belgium;
- Ireland;
- Czechia;
- Lithuania; and
- United Kingdom
The World Happiness Report has once again ranked Finland as the happiest country for the third consecutive year.1 same spot for seven years in a row. The United States went down to 23rd place from 15th place. Afghanistan, Lebanon and Lesotho were at the end of the list.
Helliwell thinks we can make Canada a happier place by changing how young people think.
“Good news, people are more generous than you think,” Helliwell said. “Believe it and behave that way. ” Treat the person you don’t know in the street like a friend you haven’t met before. Give them a smile. Have a conversation with them. Build relationshipsAnd that’s the first thing we need to do to make our community happier.
The report shows that prices for things are going up, which is making it harder for Canadians to afford things. Vance Foreman, 29, talked to CTV News in Fredericton, N. B, and believes that weather affects how people feel.
“I know many social safety programs have been reduced. ” Saving money for a house, food, and other things is very difficult. “I can see that a lot of people are feeling sad,” said Vance. He said he just moved from the city, and it’s hard to afford gas.
“I have been trying to save money for a long time, but I’m not making much progress. It’s happening very slowly,” he said. “It’s not the same as when my parents were young and trying to afford things. “