Do Canadians trust their neighbours?

Whether it’s with a helping hand or simply a wave and a smile, having trustworthy neighbours can be one of the essential qualities of a desirable neighbourhood. The degree to which someone trusts their neighbours may also reflect how safe they feel in their home or leaving their property unattended.

Data collected from April to June 2022 showed that just over half (53%) of people aged 15 years and older said that they trust many or most of the people in their neighbourhood. The remaining 47% said they trust a few or none of the people in their neighbourhood.

We all trust differently

The degree to which people trust their neighbours varies across age groups. Among youth aged 15 to 24 years, 43% said they trust many or most of their neighbours, whereas 70% of elders aged 75 years and older indicated the same, according to data collected between April and June 2022.

Among the population aged 15 years and over, the likelihood of trusting many or most neighbours was similar between men (54%) and women (52%). However, among youth aged 15 to 24 years, women (38%) were less likely to report trusting many or most neighbours compared with men (47%).

In the spring of 2022, two-thirds (66%) of people living in rural areas reported trusting many or most of the people in their neighbourhood, whereas half (50%) of urbanites said the same.

Across urban areas, those living in larger cities were less trusting of neighbours. For example, those living in metropolitan areas with more than 1.5 million people (46%) were less likely to trust many or most of their neighbours compared with those living in cities or towns with fewer than 500,000 people (55%).

In general, people in racialized groups (42%) were less likely to say that they trust many or most of their neighbours compared with non-racialized people (57%). This may be the result of several different factors. For example, it might be partially related to the higher share of racialized groups living in urban rather than rural areas: 98% of racialized groups were living in urban areas compared with 80% of non-racialized people.

Among Canada’s largest racialized groups, 47% of South Asians, 45% of Chinese and 39% of Black people trusted many or most of their neighbours. For the purposes of this article, the racialized population is defined using the visible minority variable, while the non-racialized population was made up of those who were not part of the visible minority population and who did not identify as Indigenous.

Trust thy neighbour

People in Canada who said that they trust many or most of their neighbours also reported a stronger sense of belonging to their local community, higher life satisfaction and a better sense of meaning and purpose compared with those who reported not trusting as many neighbours.

Specifically, nearly double the share of those who reported trusting many or most of the people in their neighbourhood said they had a somewhat strong or very strong sense of belonging to their local community (61%) compared with those who trust a few or none of their neighbours (31%).

Furthermore, among those who said that they trust many or most of their neighbours, 60% reported high life satisfaction and 67% reported a strong sense of meaning and purpose.

Want to learn more?

Trust in people, life satisfaction, sense of belonging to local community and sense of meaning and purpose are indicators in Canada’s Quality of Life Framework.

The infographic Trust in neighbours was released today. Additional data on trust in different groups of people (not just neighbours), and by gender, province, and other sociodemographic characteristics, are available in Table 45-10-0075 and Table 45-10-0076-01.

The report entitled “Statistics Canada’s Quality of Life Statistics Program: April 2021 to March 2023,” also released today, provides information on Statistics Canada's key activities in supporting the Government of Canada as it continues to better integrate quality of life measures into a variety of decision-making and reporting processes.