3. Canadian Indicators for the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) – article 10: right to life

On this page

• 3.1 Hopeful for the future
• 3.2 Having something to look forward to in life
• 3.3 Low satisfaction with standard of living
• 3.4 Dissatisfied with life achievements
• 3.5 Life dissatisfaction

Alternate formats

A PDF version of the Canadian Indicators for the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is available on the index page.

3.1 Hopeful for the future

Figure 3.1 - Text description

Gender	Persons with disabilities	Persons without disabilities
Men	58%	81%
Women	62%	83%

• Notes: Respondents were asked how often they have a hopeful view of the future, ranging from "Always", "Often", "Sometimes", "Rarely" to "Never". Responses of either "Always" or "Often" are used in this chart to indicate having a hopeful outlook on the future.
• Differences described below are statistically significant (p<0.05).
• Source: Statistics Canada, General Social Survey, 2016 (Social Research Division calculations).

Persons with disabilities were less likely to have a hopeful outlook on the future than persons without disabilities. Only 58% of men and 62% of women with disabilities had a hopeful outlook on the future. This compares to 81% of men and 83% of women without disabilities.

3.2 Having something to look forward to in life

Figure 3.2 - Text description

Gender	Persons with disabilities	Persons without disabilities
Men	64%	86%
Women	70%	85%

• Notes: Respondents were asked how often they have something to look forward to in life, ranging from "Always", "Often", "Sometimes", "Rarely" to "Never". The chart above shows the proportion of respondents who either "Always" or "Often" had something to look forward to.
• Differences described below are statistically significant (p<0.05).
• Source: Statistics Canada, General Social Survey, 2016 (Social Research Division calculations).

Persons with disabilities were less likely than those without disabilities to report that they often or always had something to look forward to in life. Among persons with disabilities, 64% of men and 70% of women had something to look forward to in life. This compares to 86% of men and 85% of women without disabilities.

3.3 Low satisfaction with standard of living

Figure 3.3 - Text description

Gender	Persons with disabilities	Persons without disabilities
Men	24%	9%
Women	20%	9%

• Notes: Respondents were asked to rank their satisfaction with their standard of living on a scale from 0 to 10. Responses from 0 to 5 were combined to represent a "low satisfaction".
• Differences described below are statistically significant (p<0.05).
• Source: Statistics Canada, General Social Survey, 2016 (Social Research Division calculations).

Persons with disabilities were more likely to be dissatisfied with their standard of living than persons without disabilities. Moreover, 24% of men and 20% of women with disabilities reported a low satisfaction with their standard of living. This compares to 9% of men and 9% of women without disabilities.

3.4 Dissatisfied with life achievements

Figure 3.4 - Text description

Gender	Persons with disabilities	Persons without disabilities
Men	30%	13%
Women	26%	10%

• Notes: Respondents were asked to rank their satisfaction with their life achievements on a scale from 0 to 10. Responses from 0 to 5 were combined to represent "dissatisfaction".
• Differences described below are statistically significant (p<0.05).
• Source: Statistics Canada, General Social Survey, 2016 (Social Research Division calculations).

Persons with disabilities were more likely than persons without disabilities to report dissatisfaction about their life achievements. In that regard, 30% of men and 26% of women with disabilities reported to be dissatisfied with their life achievements. This compares to 13% of men and 10% of women without disabilities.

3.5 Life dissatisfaction

Figure 3.5 - Text description

Gender	Persons with disabilities	Persons without disabilities
Men	26%	9%
Women	27%	8%

• Notes: Gender refers to an individual's personal and social identity as a man, woman, or non-binary person (a person who is not exclusively a man or a woman). To protect the data confidentiality of non-binary respondents, who constitute a very small sample, non-binary respondents have been redistributed into the men and women categories in the survey data used in this report.
• The distribution of men and women in the chart above includes people who are non-binary. Due to the amount of non-binary respondents being too small as a unique category, they were redistributed into men and women categories to ensure confidentiality.
• Respondents were asked to rank their satisfaction with their life on a scale from 0 to 10. Responses from 0 to 5 were combined to represent "Dissatisfaction".
• Differences described below are statistically significant (p<0.05).
• Source: Statistics Canada, General Social Survey, 2020 (Social Research Division calculations).

Persons with disabilities were more likely than persons without disabilities to report being dissatisfied with their life. Among persons with disabilities, 26% of men and 27% of women reported to be dissatisfied with their life. This compares to 9% of men and 8% of women without disabilities.