Statistics Canada asked people to rate their life satisfaction on a scale of 0 to 10 in a social survey conducted in 2016. The responses helped inform the life satisfaction rating, a composite score encompassing the nation’s financial situation, health, personal relationships and feelings of security.
As this week’s chart shows, the scores were fairly high across the board and tended to rise with age. Scores for men peaked in their 80s while women scored highest in their 70s.
The small drop in score for women going from their 70s to their 80s might be a statistical anomaly or health issues. Or it might relate to divorced women who are struggling financially – but this is only speculation.
Overall though, I believe this survey has something important to say about the effectiveness of our retirement planning.
In my opinion, Canadians as a whole must already be doing a pretty good job of saving for retirement. If we were not saving enough, the life satisfaction ratings would almost certainly be dropping with age, not rising.
As for respondents in their 60s, I believe their lower scores might reflect some anxiety over whether they had saved enough for retirement, a concern that apparently diminishes as retirees entered their 70s and gain a better sense of how much money they really need.
In the time since the survey was taken, the federal government (under former prime minister Justin Trudeau) launched two major initiatives to further improve the financial situation for seniors: the expansion of the Canada/Quebec Pension Plan and the increase in Old Age Security pensions for Canadians aged 75 and over.
While most seniors will welcome the extra money, the survey results suggest that the money might have been better used in other areas of our lives, such as daycare or health care.
The survey also broke down the life satisfaction scores by category (this is not shown in our chart). In particular, it showed that satisfaction with one’s standard of living rose steadily from our 40s to our 80s, another indication most of us are taking the necessary steps to be retirement-ready.
The general takeaway is that most Canadians are probably saving enough for retirement. And from my own interactions with prospective retirees, the minority who are not saving enough already know who they are.
Frederick Vettese is former chief actuary of Morneau Shepell and author of the PERC retirement calculator.
