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July 09, 2025LIFE SATISFACTION AND QUALITY OF LIFE, Q1 2025 Statistics Canada has updated some of its indicators about how Canadians perceive their quality of life, focusing on life satisfaction, sense of belonging to community and future outlook. This information is collected as part of the Canadian Social Survey, conducted from January-March 2025. National data does not include any results from the Territories. Results are stated as the share of the population reporting. Not all indicators of quality of life were surveyed in each period.
Life satisfaction
In Nova Scotia, 47.7% of respondents rated their life satisfaction in the most satisfied categories (8-10) while 28.5% rated their life satisfaction at moderate levels (6-7) and 23.8% responded with the least satisfied categories (0-5).
Across Canada, 48.6% of the respondents were in the most satisfied categories while 21.8% were in the least satisfied categories. High life satisfaction (8-10) was most prevalent in Québec while it was least prevalent in Alberta (closely followed by Saskatchewan, Ontario and British Columbia). Low life satisfaction was most prevalent in Alberta and least prevalent in Québec.
In Nova Scotia, life satisfaction has been trending down in recent years. There was a notable deterioration in reported life satisfaction in Q2 2024, but this has recovered partilly in the last three quarters.
Sense of Meaning and Purpose
In Nova Scotia, 64.8% of respondents replied in the three strongest categories (8-10) for sense of meaning and purpose - the strongest among provinces. Across Canada, 57.3% reported the strongest sense of meaning and purpose. The lowest share of respondents in these categories were in Saskatchewan.
15.9% of Nova Scotians responded that their sense of meaning and purpose in the things they do in life were in the lowest categories (0-5). The national average response in the lowest categories was 17.4% with weak sense of meaning and purpose most prevalent in Saskatchewan and British Columbia (least prevalent in Québec).
In Nova Scotia, sense of meaning and purpose declined in Q2 2024 before recovering in each of the next three quarters.
Hopeful Outlook for the Future
55.5% of Nova Scotians reported feeling hopeful about the future always or often while 9.8% of Nova Scotians rarely or never felt hopeful about the future. Nationally, 57.8% of Canadians always or often felt hopeful about the future while 11.4% rarely or never felt hopeful about the future. Respondents in Ontario had the highest prevalence of rarely/never feeling hopeful about the future. Respondents in Québec were most likely to report always having a hopeful outlook for the future.
The prevalence of a hopeful outlook has eroded in recent years, though there was some improvement in the last three quarters.
Source: Statistics Canada. Table 13-10-0843-01 Life satisfaction by gender and province; Table 13-10-0845-01 Sense of meaning and purpose by gender and province; Table 13-10-0847-01 Future outlook by gender and province
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