Most of us are content with our lot in life, according to a new survey — but Canadian teens are getting the most satisfaction.
Compared to their fellow Canadians, 94 per cent of teenagers report being satisfied or very satisfied with their lives, shows a survey released Thursday by Statistics Canada.
The latest results from the 2008 Canadian Community Health Survey, a comprehensive study of 65,000 Canadians, focused on stress, emotional health and lifestyle. It showed that boys age 12 to 19 were slightly more likely than girls to report satisfaction with life.
Canadians were asked how satisfied they were with their life in general, and could choose answers ranging from very dissatisfied to very satisfied.
The high rate of life satisfaction among Canada’s youth may provide some comfort to parents struggling through a stage of teen angst.
After teens, young adults aged 20 to 34 were the most satisfied with life (92.1 per cent), followed by Canadians aged 35 to 44 (91.5 per cent), then people over age 65, at 91.3 per cent. Canadians aged 45 to 64 were the least likely to report they were satisfied or very satisfied with life, but they weren’t very far behind the other groups: Just under 90 per cent of them reported being satisfied with life, compared to the 94 per cent of teens.
Teens also beat out Canadians of other ages in the physical activity category. Seventy-seven per cent of boys and about 60 per cent of girls aged 12 to 19 reported being at least moderately active during their leisure time. Walking at least 30 minutes a day or taking hour-long exercise classes at least three times a week is considered moderately active.
Canadians who deal with daily stress don’t seem to be letting it interfere with their happiness, the survey indicated. Of those who said their days were quite a bit or extremely stressful, 82 per cent said they were still satisfied or very satisfied with life.
The 2008 survey included other health-related trends, including a growing number of people with mood disorders and weight problems.
Last year, 6.8 per cent of Canadians age 12 or older reported having been diagnosed with depression, bipolar disorder or mania, up from 5.3 per cent in 2003. Women continue to outnumber men and provincially, Ontario and British Columbia were above the national average for the proportion of residents with diagnosed mood disorders.
Just over half the population in 2008 reported carrying a few extra pounds, and about 17 per cent of adults said their body-mass index put them in the obese category. That number is up from 15 per cent five years earlier. According to the BMI scale, a person who is five foot four and weighs 145 pounds would be obese, and a person six foot and more than 221 pounds would also be in that category.
From 2003-08, obesity among men grew from 16 to 18 per cent, and among women, it went up slightly, from 15 to 16 per cent.
Older Canadians aged 55 to 64 reported the highest obesity rates.
A more positive trend, however, related to smoking. The survey found that in 2008, about 21 per cent Canadians aged 12 or older said they smoke either daily or occasionally, down from 26 per cent in 2001.
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