Life satisfaction, 2009
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Life satisfaction is a personal subjective assessment of global well–being.
In 2009, survey respondents were asked to rate, on a scale from 0 to 10, from 'very dissatisfied' to 'very satisfied,' how they felt about their life as a whole. From 2003 to 2008, respondents were asked to choose from five categories: 'very satisfied', 'satisfied', 'neither satisfied nor dissatisfied', 'dissatisfied' or 'very dissatisfied.' The classification in Table 1 has shown good concordance between the two systems.
| 2003 to 2008 (5 categories) | 2009 (scale from 0 to 10) |
|---|---|
| Very dissatisfied | 0 or 1 |
| Dissatisfied | 2, 3 or 4 |
| Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied | 5 |
| Satisfied | 6, 7 or 8 |
| Very satisfied | 9 or 10 |
In 2009, 92.1% of Canadians aged 12 and older reported that they were satisfied or very satisfied with life, almost unchanged from 2003 (Chart 1).
Chart 1
Percentage reporting satisfied or very satisfied with life, household population aged 12 and older, Canada, 2003 to 2009
Source: Canadian Community Health Survey, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2009.
Young men aged 12 to 19 reported a higher rate of satisfaction with life, 97.7%, than did their female counterparts, 94.9% (Chart 2). In other age groups, differences between the sexes were not significant.
Chart 2
Percentage reporting being satisfied or very satisfied with life, by age group and sex, household population aged 12 and older, Canada, 2009
Source: Canadian Community Health Survey, 2009.
Canadians' life satisfaction was related to their health. Of those who were satisfied with their lives, 64.4% reported that their health was 'excellent' or 'very good,' compared with 20.4% of those who were dissatisfied with their lives. In contrast, 7.6% of those who were satisfied with life said that they were in 'fair' or 'poor' health, whereas 51.5% who were dissatisfied with life were in fair or poor health (Chart 3).
Chart 3
Satisfaction with life by perceived health, household population 12 years and older, Canada, 2009
Source: Canadian Community Health Survey, 2009.
In 2009, the percentage of residents in Quebec (94.2%) who were 'satisfied with life' was above the national average. Satisfaction rates were below the national average in Ontario, 91.5%; British Columbia, 90.9%; and Nunavut, 85.7%.
Data
Additional data from the Canadian Community Health Survey are available from CANSIM table 105–0501.
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