Quality of Life Framework for Canada
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Overview
The Quality of Life Framework (the Framework) for Canada brings together data on key indicators across five broad domains (prosperity, society, health, environment, good governance) and three central indicators (life satisfaction, sense of meaning and purpose, and future outlook).
The indicators consider material and non-material factors that are important to people’s lives, such as mental health, sense of belonging, social connection, access to nature, personal safety, and more.
The Framework provides important data that is used by governments, academics and civil society to understand and improve the state of equitable and sustainable well-being in Canada.
The Quality of Life Hub, maintained by Statistics Canada, includes the most recent quality of life data, as well as analytical products and infographics.
Text version – Quality of Life identifier
The Quality of Life Framework for Canada is divided into 5 equal segments that represent each of the 5 domains of the Framework: prosperity, health, society, environment and good governance. Quality of Life is at the centre. The Framework has 2 lenses: Fairness and Inclusion, and Sustainability and Resilience.
Development of the Framework
The Framework was developed in 2020–21 by the Department of Finance Canada to support a quality of life approach to government decision-making.
The 2021 paper “Measuring What Matters: Toward a Quality of Life Strategy for Canada” provides an in-depth explanation of the rationale for the Framework and the key considerations that informed its design.
Implementation in the Government of Canada
The implementation of the Quality of Life Framework in the Government of Canada started with the federal budget process.
In each budget since 2021, new spending proposals have included an assessment of their expected impacts on quality of life. These impacts are published each year in the Budget’s Impacts Report.
Since its implementation, the application of the Quality of Life Framework has expanded to other processes, including Cabinet decision-making, departmental planning and departmental reporting.
The Framework continues to be actively implemented throughout the government policy cycle, led by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.
Ecosystem of initiatives
The Quality of Life Framework seeks to measure societal change across a range of dimensions, with well-being at its centre. The Framework is part of an international growing consensus that a more multi-dimensional, human-centred approach to monitoring and decision-making is needed.
There are a number of similar and complementary initiatives in Canada and internationally. In fact, two-thirds of member nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development now track societal progress through multidimensional well-being frameworks.
The following organizations are key sources of information on complementary initiatives:
- The Canadian Wellbeing Knowledges Network is a collaborative initiative of organizations and individuals from public, private, academic and community sectors with a shared interest in advancing and supporting well-being policy in Canada. It maintains a list of Canadian initiatives, resources and tools.
- The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Centre for Well-being, Inclusion, Sustainability and Equal Opportunity maintains an international knowledge exchange platform on well-being metrics and policy practice.
Contact us
Questions or comments related to the implementation of the Quality of Life Framework in the Government of Canada may be sent to qualityoflife-qualitedevie@tbs-sct.gc.ca.