Kelowna pretty satisfying place; Vancouver not so much

KELOWNA – Kelowna holds a solid 12th place when it comes to life satisfaction while Vancouver found itself at the bottom of the list, according to a survey recently released by Statistics Canada.

The life satisfaction survey, published this month, looked at 33 metropolitan areas in Canada with data gathered from 2009 and 2013.

Kelowna came in with a measure of 7.985, good for 12th spot on the chart and well ahead of other B.C. cities.

Vancouver was right at the bottom with a measure of 7.808.

The happiest city in Canada is Saguenay, Que., with a life satisfaction rating of 8.245.

The average life satisfaction of Canadians is ranked at 7.973, which puts the national average in 14th place.

Canada was one of the first countries to collect survey data on life satisfaction, but now the international community has caught on, according to the article entitled How’s Life in the City?

The United Nations established March 20 as International Day of Happiness in 2012 and created a set of guidelines for measuring personal well-being.

The data will be added to the growing body of research on what the factors are that contribute to life satisfaction, including the size of the city, population density, natural endowments, economic opportunity, infrastructure, amenities and services.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Howard Alexander at halexander@infonews.ca or call 250-491-0331. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.