Cet article n'est pas disponible en français.

Quite Positive, on Balance!

Last year proved to be either stable or positive for Quebeckers as a whole, since 34% of them indicated that their state or level of happiness improved during the period. This contrasts with 12% that had the opposite opinion, resulting in a positive differential of 22 points.

The differential is a great companion statistic for the Relative Happiness Index and provides valuable information about the groups who felt that last year was positive or negative.

Consequently, it came to light that the positive differential decreases with age, as if to say that the probabilities of improving our state or level of happiness decreases as we get older. And the drop is extremely sharp for the oldest segments.

"You have your whole life ahead of you." Young people often hear such statements, because they have enough time to achieve lives that resemble their aspirations as closely as possible. And the figures show why.

The Concept of Differential

The differential between improvement and deterioration in the state or happiness of an individual last year is a useful, complementary indication for analyzing the various segments and subgroups in a population, making comparisons between them, and determining which categories in recent months have been the best and worst.

The differential is calculated simply by subtracting the percentage of respondents in a particular group claiming that their state or happiness improved by those who indicated that it had not.