Are Albertans unhappier than the rest of the country?

A recent quality of life survey from Statistics Canada shows Albertans are the unhappiest with their lives. CTV News Edmonton's Curtis Goodrum has the story.

Fewer Albertans than residents of other provinces are highly satisfied with their life, according to Statistics Canada.

The data comes from the Canadian Social Survey collected between 2021 and 2025.

One of 92 questions asked participants to rate their life satisfaction on a scale of zero (lowest) to 10 (highest). Scores of eight, nine and 10 were counted as high.

Thirty-eight per cent of Albertans rated their life satisfaction as high, a lower percentage than was recorded in any other province in the second quarter of 2025.

Across Canada, 46 per cent of people reported high life satisfaction. Elsewhere in the Prairies, 44 per cent of Saskatchewanians and 46 per cent of Manitobans reported high life satisfaction. Quebec saw the highest percentage of highly satisfied residents at 57 per cent.

But the national statistics agency warns against interpreting the numbers as though Albertans are the unhappiest.

“If we look at the percentage of people reporting, say, a zero to five – so very low life satisfaction – we’re actually seeing a very similar percentage between those (Prairie) provinces,” explained Lauren Pinault, a chief at Statistics Canada.

“For example, in Alberta, it was 29 per cent of people reporting low life satisfaction, which was very similar to the 27 per cent of people in Saskatchewan or 26 per cent of people in Manitoba.”

Possible reasons for life satisfaction scores

While the survey didn’t explore the reasons for this, other data Statistics Canada has collected shows that young adults are one of the groups that reports a lower level of life satisfaction, and have reported a decrease in life satisfaction over time.

“We see a really consistent relationship between those high levels of financial difficulty and lower levels of life satisfaction,” Pinault said.

The economy was the first thing Nathaniel Goselwitz, a young Edmontonian who spoke to CTV News Edmonton on Wednesday while walking his dog, thought of when asked about the survey results.

“A lot of tough financial hardships I’ve seen among friends and other people,” he said.

“In some of our research, we looked at views around social class, and we saw young adults that were really worried about being able to even make it into the middle class,” Michelle Maroto, a sociologist at the University of Alberta, said.

But she believes financial strain is likely only one of several compounding factors, which could include political discontent.

“I think it’s more about what’s going on in their own lives. Things like being able to get good health care and go to a doctor when you need it,” Maroto suggested.

“I think a lot of these things are coming together within Alberta to make people a little less satisfied, a little bit more worried about things.”

Two other dog walkers had a different idea:

“Maybe in the winter we get more unhappy, but I feel like in the summer, it’s beautiful here,” Keeley Zambon said.

“In the winter, definitely. Less things to do, you can’t really go outside, the roads get s*****,” added her friend Aralyn Kabangh.

All three dog owners credited their pets for helping them through tough times.

“I feel like it’s important to have hope that things will get better,” Goselwitz said.

“I feel a lot of people get too trapped in their head, too focused on the hardship…. Like today, (it’s a) beautiful day.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Stephanie Prues and Curtis Goodrum