Three in Ten (27%) Canadians, led by Albertans (46%), Describe 2016 as an Annus Horribilis

Toronto, ON – Three in ten (27%) Canadians say that all things considered, ‘2016 was a horrible year, worse than most’, according to a new Ipsos poll conducted on behalf of Global News. While two in three (64%) believe that ‘2016 was no better or worse than other years’, describing it as average, one in ten (9%) believe that 2016 ‘was a great year, better than most’.
Canadians are not feeling the pain of 2016 evenly. In fact, nearly half (46%) of Albertans describe 2016 as an annus horribilis, making them considerably more likely than those in Saskatchewan and Manitoba (31%), Ontario (27%), British Columbia (24%), Atlantic Canada (22%) or Quebec (19%) to say so. Those aged 18-34 are more likely (32%) than those aged 35-54 (26%), or 55+ (23%) to say that 2016 was a horrible year.

Asking those who believe that 2016 was a horrible year why they gave this negative assessment, six in ten (58%) indicate that there are too many terrible things happening in the world. Nearly half (48%) say it’s because of their own personal financial situation, or because of the election of Donald Trump as the next U.S. President (45%). Four in ten (42%) attribute the bad year to the Canadian economy in general (42%), while fewer say that it was because of personal or family matters (32%), their job and career (29%), the death of many celebrities and famous people that they admire (25%), or some other reason (13%).

Assessing specific aspects of 2016 and how it impacted Canadians, eight in ten (80%, down 1 point since last year) say that 2016 was a good (25% very/54% somewhat) year for their family, and three quarters (75%, down 2 points) of working Canadians say that it was a good (21% very/54% somewhat) year for their job or career.

While some gains have been made since last year, only a slim majority say 2016 was a good year for their personal financial situation (60%, up 2 points -- 12% very/48% somewhat) and their retirement plans or savings (52%, up 5 points - 9% very/42% somewhat). Just four in ten say it was a good year for the Canadian economy in general (44% -- 4% very/40% somewhat), although this is an 8-point improvement over the assessment Canadians gave of 2015.

Taking stock of various aspects of their lives, most Canadians say they’re happy and healthy and have a good social life, but fewer are pleased with their financial situation or their sex/romantic life.  The following chart outlines the proportion of Canadians who feel good about the various aspects of their lives, and how those opinions have changed over the last 5 years.

It appears that the greatest change in the last 5 years is that Canadians collectively feel less healthy (-5 points) and are less satisfied with their sex or romantic lives (-3 points).  

Looking at the 20% who would rate their personal happiness as being bad, they are disproportionally under the age of 35 (27%), compared to Canadians aged 35-54 (21%) or 55+ (13%). Millennials are also more likely to rate their social life as being bad (33%) compared to Gen X’ers (27%) and Boomers (21%). On the other hand, Boomers are more likely (42%) than Gen X’ers (38%) and Millennials (35%) to say their sex life is bad, so it’s not all bad news for Millennials.

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between December 15 and 21, 2016, on behalf of Global News. For this survey, a sample of 3,004 Canadians from Ipsos' online panel was interviewed online. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval.  In this case, the poll is accurate to within +/ 2.0 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Canadian adults been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Sean Simpson
Vice President
(416) 324-2002
Ipsos Public Affairs
[email protected]

About Ipsos

Ipsos ranks third in the global research industry. With a strong presence in 87 countries, Ipsos employs more than 16,000 people and has the ability to conduct research programs in more than 100 countries. Founded in France in 1975, Ipsos is controlled and managed by research professionals. They have built a solid Group around a multi-specialist positioning-- Media and advertising research; Marketing research; Client and employee relationship management; Opinion & social research; Mobile, Online, Offline data collection and delivery. Ipsos has been listed on the Paris Stock Exchange since 1999. www.ipsos.com