This is The Week in Polling, your Saturday dose of interesting numbers from top pollsters in Canada and around the world, curated by The Hub. Here’s what we’re looking at this week.
Canadians expect the next generation to have a lower quality of life than they have today
Seven in ten Canadians say they believe the next generation will have a lower standard of living than today, reaching an all-time high since this metric was first tracked in 2012. Respondents between the ages of 18 and 34 are more likely (74 percent) to expect the next generation to have a lower standard of living than those aged 55 and over (65 percent).
While the poll did not directly explain why so many Canadians expect living standards to worsen, presumably, the Canadian economy might have been considered. In 2016, Canada’s economy ranked 17th in the world based on gross domestic product (GDP) at purchasing power parity. PWC projected the Canadian economy to dip to 18th by 2030 and then to 22nd by 2050, in which Canada is projected to be well below the global average in real growth per capita. Goldman Sachs predicted that Canada will be under the global average in GDP growth every year from 2030 to 2079.
Housing costs and income disparity are also a consideration. According to the Canadian Real Estate Association, homes in Canada are, on average, just south of $700,000 based on the most recent data available. In 2022, the last year of available data from Statistics Canada, the average total income for a working-age Canadian was $57,100 before taxes. The 63 percent of Canadians who don’t own a home have “given up” on ever owning one, according to a recent Ipsos poll.
