Sure, Canadians are pretty happy compared to the rest of the world. But in these important ways, we’re also quite sad

Actually, to be the 15th-happiest people on Earth among more than 140 countries surveyed is pretty good at a time when Canadians are coping with a cost-of-living crisis.

And Canada leads its G7 peers in happiness.

It ranks ahead of the U.K. (20th), the U.S. (23rd), Germany (24th), France (27th), Italy (41st) and Japan (51st). 

That G7 benchmark matters because it provides comparisons that are closest to like-to-like.

Because everyone experiences happiness in their own way, comparisons among scores of countries can be misleading.

Israel, which ranks 5th in the latest Happiness index, is situated in a conflicted region. And Kuwait (13th) is a land of limited personal freedoms compared to Canada. 

So, an Israeli’s idea of happiness, and that of a Kuwaiti, will differ from that of a Canadian.

By contrast, the G7 countries have much in common. They are among the largest of Western countries, in both economic size and population.

They are democracies with mixed economies, in contrast with government-directed economies like China.

And they are multicultural societies, except for G7 member Japan, a monoculture increasingly open to non-Japanese immigrants as its population declines.

Governments in Canada benchmark against G7 peers. More than most groups of countries, the G7 members share the same complexities, problems, and opportunities.

So, a larger question presents itself: We’re happier than our G7 peers, but how does Canada compare with them across the board?

The answer, as shown in the G7 report card that follows, is that Canada does well in most important measures but needs improvement in all of them.

PISA. Canada ranked in the top 10 in the three main fields of student testing in the latest report by the Programme for International Student Assessment, for 2022 and published in 2023. It was the only country in the Western Hemisphere to do so.

The main fields are mathematics, where Canadian students ranked 9th, reading (8th) and science (8th). 

PISA is administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). It measures student achievement in the 38 OECD member countries and in many other nations.

The U.S. ranked 34th in math in the latest PISA results, 9th in reading, and 16th in science.

Among G7 peers Canada is outranked in math, reading and science only by Japan. A worrisome sign is that Canada has been slipping since 2018 in math and reading. 

World Competitiveness Ranking With an overall ranking of 15th, Canada trails only the U.S. (9th) among G7 peers on this assessment of 64 economies conducted by the Swiss-based International Institute for Management Development (IMD).

The IMD assesses countries on 336 criteria in its four main categories of economic performance, in which Canada ranks 9th, government efficiency (16th), business efficiency (17th) and infrastructure (11th).

Canada ranks 3rd most competitive among countries with populations over 20 million, a separate IMD ranking that excludes microeconomies.

But the latest IMD report exposes some glaring deficiencies, including the provincial tariff barriers that hold back GDP growth.

Investment in R&D The OECD reports that Canada underperforms all its G7 peers on this metric.

The U.S. leads the G7 pack with R&D spending equal to about 3.5 per cent of GDP in 2021. The Canadian figure for that year is 1.7 per cent.

Canada ranks high in researchers per 1,000 employed people, however, with 10.9 in 2020, the latest data available. France leads with 11.3 in 2020 and the U.S. has 9.9.

Human Development Index Canada trails only Germany (7th) and the U.K. (15th) among G7 peers on HDI, ranking 18th in the most recent edition of this global survey by the UN Development Programme. The U.S. ranks 20th.

But Canada’s performance has fallen sharply on HDI, an index that it has topped eight times, most recently in 2000.

Canada lost that crown with CO2 emissions of 14.1 metric tonnes per capita against a world average of 4.7 metric tonnes. Canadian life expectancy at birth has dropped to 81.3 years in 2022 from 82.3 years in 2019. And the female labour participation rate has declined to 61.5 per cent from 62.2 per cent a decade earlier.

Social Progress Index Ranked 15th on this index that measures 51 social and environmental indicators in 149 countries, Canada trails only Germany (10th) among G7 peers. 

But both Canada and the U.S. (29th) have fallen in the most recent edition of this ranking. Researchers at the U.S. non-profit Social Progress Imperative attribute declines among the countries it measures largely to lowered standards of health care and human rights.

In sum, Canada probably gets a B+ on its G7 report card.

Canada’s above-average rankings in most leading indicators suggest that it has the experience and resources to improve.

And that’s something to be happy about.

Correction - April 1, 2024

This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said the U.K. underperforms Canada in R&D spending as a percent of GDP.