Facing a soaring housing costs, stiff competition to find a job, and overall diminished prospects of starting a family — the just released 2024 World Happiness Report finds that Canadian youth are struggling.
When looking at Canadian data in its entirety, Canada appears to be one of the happiest places on planet earth – in fact, it comes in 15th place globally:
See more charts from Statistica.
However, large age-based disparities become evident when you examine the data more closely.
Canadian Under 30s Report Significantly Less Happiness Than Older Canadians
In fact, Canadians over 60 (considered The Old in this study) were the 8th happiest cohort on planet Earth, while Canadians under 30 (consider the The Young) were the 58th most happy cohort on planet Earth.
A 50 point difference!
What is most concerning however, is how fast Canadian youth have fallen in the rankings over the last 2 decades.
Canadian Youth Used to Be Happy
While the World Happiness Report 2015 didn’t breakdown age-based happiness data by Country like they do in 2024, we can still use North American age data as a proxy; and the 2015 data paints a very different picture than today, with under 30s being just as happy as the old:
When you compare the 2015 data (above) to the more recent 2024 data, (below), you find that everyone over 40 is staying the same, but the youth in Canada are becoming less happy:
North American Youth Have Seen a Significant Drop in Happiness Over 10 Years
North American youth under 30 have dropped almost a full point in happiness since 2010. Compare this to Eastern Europe who’s youth have seen a full point happiness increase.
The Drop in Youth Happiness is Causing Canada to be One of the Fastest Declining Countries Overall
When it comes to happiness, Canada is now the 14th fastest declining country in the world, and this is due to how rapidly its youth are becoming unhappy.
Its become evident that its time for Canadian politicians, and Canadians in general, to start asking themselves why the next generation is so unhappy, and more importantly, what can be done to improve it.
