{"id":136,"date":"2021-03-31T11:30:07","date_gmt":"2021-03-31T15:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/?p=136"},"modified":"2021-04-06T13:18:02","modified_gmt":"2021-04-06T17:18:02","slug":"canada-slips-in-world-happiness-ranking-during-covid-19-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/2021\/03\/31\/canada-slips-in-world-happiness-ranking-during-covid-19-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada slips in World Happiness ranking during COVID-19 pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2021\/03\/denise-jans-VfeRHjZRT48-unsplash-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-150\" width=\"831\" height=\"554\" srcset=\"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2021\/03\/denise-jans-VfeRHjZRT48-unsplash-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2021\/03\/denise-jans-VfeRHjZRT48-unsplash-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2021\/03\/denise-jans-VfeRHjZRT48-unsplash-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2021\/03\/denise-jans-VfeRHjZRT48-unsplash-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2021\/03\/denise-jans-VfeRHjZRT48-unsplash-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 831px) 100vw, 831px\" \/><figcaption>A woman standing in a grass field with a Canadian flag. (Denise Jans\/ Unsplash)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>March 30, 2021 | By Jenna Benchetrit <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Canada has ranked 15th in the <a href=\"https:\/\/worldhappiness.report\/ed\/2021\/\">2021 World Happiness Report<\/a>, falling out of the top ten during a year in which it has been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finland ranked number one for the fourth year in a row, with high representation of Nordic social democracies elsewhere in the top ten, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/7710821\/world-happiness-index-report-canada-2021-covid-19\/\">Global News<\/a>. Overall, the pandemic led to a decrease in well-being worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Canada\u2019s happiness ranking has been dropping steadily in recent years. In 2020, it placed 10th worldwide, compared to 9th in 2019 and 7th in 2018 and 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The report is published annually by the United Nations. It uses data from countries around the world to gage the happiness of their citizens, based on factors like trust in government, income levels and social services. The 2021 list is missing data from countries where COVID-19 made polling difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-knight-lab wp-block-embed-knight-lab\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" src='https:\/\/uploads.knightlab.com\/storymapjs\/3445e63683f2e6775ec0bf10dcb71984\/newsroom-day-2\/index.html?fbclid=IwAR0yC6dCMPlYm6i1dql8keketmmLw4bcb9n9G-hJ-jRRN1jF7JpsbvVDAAU#?secret=oJW4Ih7t0C' data-secret='oJW4Ih7t0C' width='700' height='700' frameborder='0'><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">\u201cThe World Happiness Report comes out this year after a global experiment that altered the life conditions of many, brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcgill.ca\/newsroom\/channels\/news\/expert-canada-ranks-15th-latest-world-happiness-report-329763\">said<\/a> Christopher Barrington-Leigh, an associate professor at McGill University\u2019s Institute for Health and Social Policy and Bieler School of Environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn Canada, it is also a year in which significant efforts towards [well-being] measurement and policy-making are afoot in Nova Scotia and in Ottawa,\u201d Barrington-Leigh added. Nova Scotia Premier Iain Rankin <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thechronicleherald.ca\/opinion\/local-perspectives\/iain-rankin-faring-well-in-nova-scotia-a-re-evaluation-of-our-wealth-health-562404\/\">recently said<\/a> that well-being and quality of life should be used as measures of progress in the province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The new ranking reflects a <a href=\"https:\/\/www150.statcan.gc.ca\/n1\/pub\/45-28-0001\/2020001\/article\/00093-eng.htm\">2020 survey<\/a> from Statistics Canada, which found that the life satisfaction of Canadians had dropped 1.31 points between 2018 and 2020. The purpose of that survey was to evaluate the impacts of COVID-19 on Canadian well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Teens were found to be especially vulnerable as a result of the pandemic, the report said. A study of roughly 1,000 Canadian adolescents predicted lower loneliness among those who spent more time with family and friends and engaged in physical activity. Another study of Canadian teens aged 18 and 19 found that \u201cparasocial activities\u201d like volunteering led to higher satisfaction in the days following those engagements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2021\/03\/Mean-life-satisfaction-by-age.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-157\" width=\"740\" height=\"378\" srcset=\"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2021\/03\/Mean-life-satisfaction-by-age.jpg 852w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2021\/03\/Mean-life-satisfaction-by-age-300x154.jpg 300w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2021\/03\/Mean-life-satisfaction-by-age-768x393.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>While COVID-19 has led to a global short-term dip in quality of life, it has not posed the same disruption in long-term evaluations of happiness, the report\u2019s co-author and Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/2021-world-happiness-report-covid-resilience-79b5b8d1a2367e69df05ae68b58aa435\">told<\/a> the Associated Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>March 30, 2021 | By Jenna Benchetrit Canada has ranked 15th in the 2021 World Happiness Report, falling out of the top ten during a year in which it has been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic. Finland ranked number one for the fourth year in a row, with high representation of Nordic social democracies elsewhere [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":422,"featured_media":157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/422"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}