The share of Canadian adults reporting “very good” or “perfect” health has declined over the past decade, says a new report, citing a declining emotional health and a growing prevalence of pain.
StatCan found that the number of adults with “very good” to excellent” functional health decreased from 68.6 percent in 2015 to 56.4 percent in 2024.
“This decrease is notable given that from 1994 to 2015, mean functional health remained constant for Canadian adults under age 65, and improved for those aged 65 and older,” StatCan said. “Conversely, from 2015 to 2024, functional health remained approximately the same for Canadians aged 75 and older, but decreased for all younger age groups.”
The report analyzed data collected from the Canadian Community Health Survey which was conducted in 2015, 2019, and 2024. The survey posed functional health questions to respondents 18 and older.
What Is a Functional Health Assessment?
Functional health evaluates an individual’s difficulty across eight attributes: vision, hearing, speech, cognition, dexterity, mobility, emotion, and pain, which play a major role in overall quality of life, the report said.
These characteristics are subsequently integrated into a multi-attribute score to summarize a person’s overall functional health status. A score ranging from 0.89 to 1.00 signifies very good to perfect functional health, whereas scores falling below 0.89 reflect moderate to poor functional health.
A person with perfect emotional health, for example, would report being happy and interested in life. Those with perfect health regarding pain level would include those who reported no pain or physical discomfort.
Health Variances in Age and Sex
The functional health of Canadians aged 75 and older remained relatively stable between 2015 to 2024, but has declined among all younger age demographics, according to the report.The functional health of the youngest age demographic—18 to 34—dropped more than 13 percent over the nine-year period.
Just over 73 percent of people in this age group had “very good” to “perfect” functional health in 2015, declining to 60 percent in 2024. Those between the ages of 35 and 49 saw a similar dip from 73 percent in 2015 to 60.4 percent in 2024.
The biggest contributing factor to this change was emotional health.
The report noted that the emotional health of those surveyed has declined more significantly than any other attribute, falling from 78.3 percent reporting very good or perfect health in this area in 2015 to 61.2 percent in 2024. The steepest drop in this category was noted among Canadians aged 18 to 34.
The men who participated in the poll were 3 percent less likely to report good emotional health than women. The percentage of adult males in 2024 who reported being happy and interested in life came in at 59.8 percent, compared to 62.7 percent for adult females.
Women had slightly better emotional health than their male counterparts, but had worse overall functional health. All age groups reported worse functional health among women, largely due to an increase in physical pain, according to the report.
Health by Province
The decline in functional health was also seen across every province.Nova Scotia and New Brunswick had the lowest functional health among all of Canada’s provinces. Only 47.7 percent and 48.3 percent respectively had very good to perfect functional health.
British Columbia was third at 53.2 percent, followed by Saskatchewan at 53.4 percent, Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador at 54.3 percent, Alberta at 54.6 percent, Manitoba at 56.1 percent, and Prince Edward Island at 57.1 percent. Quebec had the highest number of residents with very good or perfect functional health, coming in at 65.6 percent.
