Table 5
Characteristics of social networks and senior women's and men's feeling about life as a whole, by age group, Canada, 2008

Standard symbols

Table 5
Characteristics of social networks and senior women's and men's feeling about life as a whole, by age group, Canada, 2008
 Table summary
 This table displays the results of Characteristics of social networks and senior women's and men's feeling about life as a whole. The information is grouped by Characteristics appearing as row headers and is grouped by Women, Men, Total, 65 to 74 years, 75 years and over, Women aged 65 years and over, Men aged 65 years and over appearing as column headers, calculated using average score and percentage as a unit of measure.
Characteristics Women Men Total
65 to 74 years 75 years and
over		 65 to 74 years 75 years and
over		 Women aged
65 years and over		 Men aged
65 years and over
average score
Satisfaction with life as a whole1 8.2 8.2 8.2 8.1 8.2 8.2
  percentage
Feeling about life as a whole
Happy and interested in life 79.3 79.1 77.2 77.7 79.2 77.4
Somewhat happy 18.5 18.8 20.5 18.1 18.7 19.5
Somewhat unhappy 2.2E 2.1E 2.4E 4.2E 1.2 3.1E
Number of family members
respondent feels close to
None 1.6E‡ 2.3E 5.1E‡ 3.4E 1.9‡ 4.4
One to four 41.0* 46.8 42.3 43.5 43.8 42.8
Five or more 57.3* 51.0 52.7 53.0 54.3 52.8
Number of friends
respondent feels close to
None 9.6* 14.5 9.8* 14.7 12.0 11.8
One or two 21.3‡ 23.9‡ 17.3‡ 13.3‡ 22.6‡ 15.6
Three or more 69.1 61.6‡ 72.9 72.0‡ 65.5‡ 72.5
Number of friends excluding closest
None 11.0‡ 13.6‡ 8.2* 12.0‡ 12.2 9.8
At least one 89.0‡ 86.4‡ 91.8* 88.0‡ 87.8 90.2
Daily contacts
Family 9.7‡ 11.4‡ 6.1‡ 8.0‡ 10.5‡ 6.9
Friends 11.1 14.1 11.6 15.4 12.5 13.2
Respondent misses having people
around
Yes 25.0‡ 34.0‡ 28.2‡ 33.4‡ 29.3‡ 30.3
More or less 16.8* 13.5 14.4 13.4 15.2 14.0
No 58.2* 52.5 57.4 53.3 55.5 55.7
E use with caution
‡ statistically significant difference between women and men at p<0.05
* statistically significant difference between age groups at p<0.05
1.To measure satisfaction with life we use a scale that goes from 1 to 10, where 1 means "very dissatisfied" and 10 means "very satisfied."
Source: Statistics Canada, General Social Survey, 2008 – Social Networks.
Date modified: