Who Thrives in Canada? Health, Prosperity, and Inequality Across Communities

Although Canada performs well on aggregate measures of subjective well-being, national averages mask substantial heterogeneity across population groups. Professor Anand and her team’s analysis of data from the Canadian Alliance for Healthy Hearts and Minds cohort demonstrates that, while the majority of adults meet criteria for “thriving,” racialized immigrants report significantly lower life satisfaction compared with non-racialized, Canadian-born individuals. Thriving is independently associated with socioeconomic status, cardiovascular health, affordability of medications, neighbourhood social cohesion, and access to language-concordant primary care. Conversely, social disadvantage, poorer health, and barriers to care are associated with lower well-being. These findings underscore the importance of incorporating social determinants and health system factors into population health strategies aimed at reducing inequities in subjective well-being in Canada.