More Canadians are “thriving” than “struggling” for the first time since 2022, according to a new survey from the Angus Reid Institute that indicates optimism about the future may be increasing.
Various measures of sentiment in the survey are more positive than they have been in several years, though many also show more pessimism than before the pandemic. The results suggest financial burdens that have accumulated in recent years “have eased but not fully abated,” the survey report says.
The proportion of Canadians who are “thriving” reached 28 per cent in the institute’s Economic Stress Index, “the highest point of the last three years,” the report says. The proportion who are “struggling” fell to 27 per cent, from 33 per cent in September.
One key measure shows the lowest proportion of Canadians since 2021 (38 per cent) saying they are “financially worse off than they were 12 months ago,” according to the data. “This still represents an elevated proportion compared to more than 14 years of tracking from the Angus Reid Institute as the effects of an extended period of high inflation are evidently still being felt,” the report said. Prior to 2021, the proportion who felt they were worse off than in the previous year tended to hover closer to 30 per cent.
A similar measure looking to a year ahead mirrors the trend, with the proportion expecting to be worse off next year at its lowest since 2021, at 26 per cent.
The survey results align with various macroeconomic developments in the past year, the report notes, with interest rates lower, inflation generally within the Bank of Canada’s desired boundaries of two to three per cent, and wages up. The report points out increased Black Friday spending compared with last year and higher home sales as signs of improving confidence.
Importantly, the poll, which canvassed a sample of 4,004 Canadian adults, was conducted after U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s threat of potential 25 per cent tariffs on imports from Canada.
Cost of living remains a central fixation of many Canadians, with 57 per cent of respondents declaring it an issue they care about the most, ahead of any other, including healthcare (43 per cent) and housing affordability (32 per cent).
On that front, there are also signs that Canadians’ stress may be coming down. For the first time since mid-2023, more Canadians say feeding their household is easy or very easy (50 per cent) than those who say it is difficult or very difficult (48 per cent). That 48 per cent is “a lower proportion than seen in the past two years, but higher than in 2019, when 38 per cent said the same,” the report says.