Measuring perception of social and democratic values

Like many societies across the world, interwoven in the Canadian identity are particular social, democratic, and diversity values. Canada’s Quality of Life Framework therefore assesses the extent to which such values are shared, as part of its monitoring of factors such as social cohesion, community vitality and opportunities for cultural expression.

Within the Society domain, the indicator positive perceptions of diversity focusses on Canadians’ level of personal agreement with certain social and democratic values, which are measured for the first time in the General Social Survey on Social Identity. Previously, the survey only asked questions on the extent to which people believed that Canadians share a set of specific values. The values include: human rights; respect for the law; gender equality; having English and French as Canada’s official languages (linguistic duality); ethnic and cultural diversity; and respect for Indigenous (First Nations, Métis or Inuit) cultures.

Most Canadians were supportive of core social and democratic values

According to the 2020 General Social Survey on Social Identity, most people in Canada aged 15 years and older were in favour to a great extent with all six measured social and democratic values, with some values receiving a higher level of support than others.

There was broad agreement on the social and democratic values of human rights (86%), respect for law (80%) and gender equality (81%).  Close to 7 in 10 agreed to a great extent with respect for Indigenous culture (68%) and ethnic and cultural diversity (67%), while the percentage of Canadians who were strongly supportive of having both English and French as Canada’s official languages was lower, at 55%.

Women and young people are more likely to support diversity and gender equality values

With the exception of linguistic duality—where there was no gender difference—a larger share of women agreed to a great extent with social and democratic values when compared with men. Among the values with the biggest differences across gender were respect for Indigenous cultures (73% of women agreed to a great extent, versus 63% of men); ethnic and cultural diversity (71% of women versus 62% of men) and gender equality (84% of women versus 77% of men).

Younger Canadians were also more likely to value respect for Indigenous cultures and ethnic and cultural diversity, while older Canadians placed a high degree of value on respect for law.

Specifically, nearly 8 in 10 of those aged 15 to 24 (78%) agreed to a great extent with ethnic and cultural diversity and with respect for Indigenous cultures (77%).  This compared with 57% and 62% of those aged 55 and older, respectively.

Conversely, almost 9 in 10 Canadians aged 55 and older agreed to a great extent with respect for law (88%), compared with nearly 7 in 10 Canadians aged 15 to 24 (67%).

Higher education was related to a stronger support for social and democratic values. For instance, 87% of people with a bachelor’s degree or higher agreed to a great extent with gender equality and 76% agreed strongly with ethnic and cultural diversity. This compared with 78% and 62% for those with any form of education below a bachelor’s degree, respectively.

Quebec residents are the most supportive of gender equality and linguistic duality

Geographically, significant differences exist with respect to the values of gender equality and having English and French as Canada’s official languages. Quebec had the largest share of residents who agreed to a great extent with gender equality (87%), while the Prairies had the lowest share (76%).

Likewise, the share of Quebec residents who agreed to a great extent with linguistic duality (79%) was much higher than in the Prairies (43%). British Columbia (39%) had the lowest share of residents who agreed to a great extent with having English and French as Canada’s official languages.

Want to know more?

Statistics Canada’s Society and Community Statistics page is a one-stop shop for all things related to Canadian society.

The infographic “Agreement with Social and Democratic Values in Canada” and the Insights on Canadian Society paper “An examination of gender differences in social and democratic values in Canada” were also released today. Take a look!