It’s time to Get Serious About Plummeting Life Satisfaction
A Message from Danny Graham
According to the 2025 UN World Happiness Report’s measurement of life satisfaction, Canada has fallen to its lowest ranking on record (18th out of 134 countries). Our ranking was 4th when the report was first published and was consistently in the top ten until recent years. More concerningly, for adults between 15 and 30 we now rank 58th. In fact, for the last 15 years, life satisfaction for young adults in Canada has been dropping faster than any country except Afghanistan, Lebanon, Venezuela and Jordan. That reflects a crisis.
Closer to home, the graph below, published in the fall of 2024 from the Canadian Community Health Survey, illustrates the stark decline in life satisfaction (all ages) amongst both Canadians and Nova Scotians.
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Explanations for these bleak trends are elusive – even amongst experts. Canadian public health officials have pointed to the pandemic. Economists have speculated about affordability. Social scientists have guessed at social media use, fewer good friendships, and a perilous climate future.
We believe that these opinions are partially right and, at the same time, involve too much speculation. The wide range of opinions highlight the complexity of the problem, and they also reflect the absence of data and rigorous research that allows these concerns to be addressed.
The Nova Scotia Quality of Life Survey offers hope in this regard. We “connect the dots” about how seemingly unrelated topics can be understood together to better inform decision making, and unlock why life satisfaction is plummeting.
Our Mission is to “change the approach to improving quality of life – for everyone”. That goal starts with fully understanding how everyone is doing through our upcoming quality of life survey.
The survey captures data, but we see data as a portal to personal stories. For many, that story starts with affordability. For others it may be about loneliness, job insecurity, climate change, chronic illness, democratic uncertainty, public safety, or discrimination. We touch on all these questions and much more. We don’t just scratch the surface of how Nova Scotians are doing; we dig into their stories across a wide field of topics with many questions.
We are not telling people what they need - we are asking them what they need – their concerns, experiences, worries, hopes and potential.
Answers from the survey will be used to equip decision makers, community organizations and the public with the data and stories of Nova Scotians that will help improve quality of life for everyone.
We are the only province or state in North America undertaking such an ambitious initiative. This effort is a game-changer, not only for Nova Scotia, but nationally and internationally. Our work was cited this month in the 2025 Report to Parliament,“Working Together to Thrive: Wellbeing and Public Health,” by the Chief Public Health Officer (Dr Theresa Tam) as a Catalyst for Intersectoral Action. In July, we presented to the team responsible for researching and writing the United Nations Human Development Report.
Regularly we all encounter people who express how bewildering and worrisome these times are. It doesn’t need to stay that way. We believe the answer to “What’s going on in a world I thought I knew and loved?” just requires more attention.
We can make our way back. Getting serious about understanding declining life satisfaction in Canada is a constructive next step in the right direction. That, and infinitely more, will happen through your participation in the next survey.
We anticipate the uncertainty about mail delivery in Canada will be resolved soon. This has delayed our plans to have the survey invitation cards in your mailbox this fall. On time and consistent mail delivery will be here soon.
