Evolving our approach to measuring quality of life in Canada

In 2021, the Government of Canada introduced the Quality of Life Framework, a tool for assessing and understanding the well-being of people living in Canada across multiple domains. This initiative marked a significant step in understanding and improving the factors that contribute to quality of life nationwide.

To make this wealth of information accessible to all Canadians, the Quality of Life Hub was launched by Statistics Canada in 2022. This online portal consolidates key economic, social and environmental insights into a centralized, user-friendly location. The hub is continually updated, with recent additions, including new visual products and datasets, which provide users with an interactive and detailed view of quality of life indicators over time.

The most recent data from the Canadian Social Survey, which can be found in the Quality of Life Hub, highlight the following trends:

• Two-thirds (68.3%) of the Canadian population aged 75 years and older reported a high sense of meaning and purpose in the fourth quarter (October to December) of 2024, compared with close to half (48.4%) of respondents aged 15 to 24.
• In the fourth quarter, the percentage of immigrants who reported having an always or often hopeful view of the future (56.7%) was similar to that of non-immigrants (56.0%). However, a smaller share of immigrants reported a high life satisfaction score (37.9%) relative to their non-immigrant counterparts (49.6%).
• A higher percentage of women reported a high sense of meaning and purpose (58.8%) compared with men (54.9%) in the fourth quarter. Likewise, a higher percentage of women reported a high life satisfaction score (47.5%) compared with men (44.6%).
• From the fourth quarter of 2021 to the fourth quarter of 2024, the percentage of the Canadian population who reported a high life satisfaction score fell by 6.1 percentage points, from 52.1% to 46.0%.

Advancing quality of life insights

In 2024, Statistics Canada conducted a review of the Quality of Life Framework and its indicators, drawing on its network of data users and producers. This effort—to be repeated every two years—aims to ensure the framework and its indicators remain relevant and impactful over time. 

This process highlighted the importance of regionally disaggregated data and detailed demographic breakdowns by sex, gender, rural or urban status, and Indigenous identity. It also affirmed that data users find annual collection to be the optimal frequency for capturing trends effectively.

What’s next? 

The review is an important milestone that paves the way for a series of exciting developments for Statistics Canada. 

• To respond to growing demand for geographically disaggregated data, the Quality of Life Hub now enables users to map key indicators visually with a new mapping tool, released in late January 2025.
• Statistics Canada continues to accelerate its work to develop disaggregated data on the quality of life of key population groups.
• Most quality of life indicators now have collection cycles that can provide annual estimates to allow for monitoring change over time.
• In March 2025, the hub will see one of its most substantial updates since its launch in 2022, bringing its data and metadata up to date for its diverse community of users.

The next review of the Quality of Life Framework in 2026 will focus on the needs of external stakeholders, including other levels of government, not-for-profits, academics, and Indigenous-led organizations and communities. This will be done with the aim of better understanding external data user needs as Statistics Canada’s Quality of Life Framework continues to evolve.