Canadian youth struggle with making friends and bullying: UNICEF report

The UNICEF logo is seen at the German UNICEF headquarters in Cologne, Germany, on Feb. 5, 2008. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Hermann J. Knippertz

A global study from UNICEF suggests many Canadian kids are unhappy, with social struggles such as bullying and difficulty making friends among the sources of their anguish.

UNICEF’s 19th Report Card suggests one in five youth in Canada face frequent bullying, one in five are lonely and one in four struggle to make friends.

It blames bullying in particular for a drop in life satisfaction reported by 15-year-olds, down three percentage points to 76 per cent since 2018.

That marks Canada’s biggest slide among categories examined by the report, which compares the well-being of Canadian children to those in other wealthy countries between 2018 and 2022.

Despite being among the 10 wealthiest countries studied, Canada ranked 19th out of 36 countries overall, landing toward the bottom end for adolescent suicide, child mortality and social skills.

The head of an early learning unit at Vancouver’s University of British Columbia said the findings are especially disappointing since Canada should have the resources to address youth struggles, and the societal factors that exacerbate them.

“Children, in many ways, are doing worse. The supports are decreasing rather than increasing,” said Dr. Mariana Brussoni, director of the Human Early Learning Partnership.

“Children are part of families, which are part of communities and neighbourhoods and societies, so it’s not just children (struggling). You have to think about everything that surrounds them, and we’ve seen how parents are struggling and how communities are having hard times.”

A companion report also released Tuesday that focuses on the Canadian findings says bullying is a major contributor to lower life satisfaction, with 22 per cent of 15-year-olds saying they were bullied frequently, ranking 26th of 40 countries.

Canada ranked 28th out of 41 countries for social skills, with one in four 15-year-olds saying it was not easy to make friends at school – slightly more than the report’s average and part of a worrisome trend.

“This report puts a spotlight on the areas we need prioritized for our children and youth: their health, safety, education, and happiness,” Sevaun Palvetzian, president and CEO of UNICEF Canada, said in a release.

“I’m deeply disappointed by how the life satisfaction of children and youth in Canada is falling. Good mental health is the foundation for childhood, yet it continues to be overlooked,” added UNICEF Canada’s youth advocate Matin Moradkhan.

“We are calling for fundamental policy change to our education, funding, and healthcare system, so every child and young person has the opportunity to thrive.”

The study from the UN Children’s Fund notes social skills largely held steady during an unusual time period when COVID-19 upended daily routines for many families.

In Canada, the pandemic forced classes in most parts of the country to move online, cancelled some extracurricular activities and restricted gatherings.

“This indicator changed relatively little between 2018 and 2022 – increasing by more than five per cent in seven of 36 countries while only decreasing substantially in one,” says the study.

“This is a positive sign given the concerns about the potential impacts of school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Still, Brussoni says these trends existed before the pandemic and continue today, requiring vigilance to ensure the right supports are available early in a child’s life when it “pays off so much more than trying to fix things later on.”

Canada ranked 13th for overall life satisfaction, and although there was a slight drop, the study says it was not considered statistically significant.

The study also found Canada improved its rates of suicide and child mortality but still ranked relatively low – 33rd out of 42 countries for suicide, and 25th of 43 countries for child mortality.

Since 2018, the rate of adolescent suicide fell to 8.4 from 10.1 per 100,000 but remained well above the average rate of 6.2 per 100,000, with suicide remaining a leading cause of death of adolescents.

The mortality rate among children aged five to 14 dropped to 0.88 from 0.94 per 1,000, but that improvement was less than gains in most other countries, while there was also little progress in addressing overweight kids — more than one in four.

Canada’s only top 12 ranking was in academic skills, where it placed sixth out of 42 countries.

The companion report, “Childhood Interrupted: How Canada’s Child Well-Being Compares to Other Wealthy Countries” urges all levels of government for measures that include doubling the Child Disability Benefit, greater access to income benefits and parental leaves for infant care, and greater protection from marketing and digital harms.

It also calls for better responsiveness of Jordan’s Principle, established by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal to make sure First Nations children do not face delays or denials in accessing government services.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 13, 2025.

Cassandra Szklarski, The Canadian Press