Inter-generational Mobility in Canada

For over 30 years, the Environics Institute (and, prior to its establishment, the Environics Research Group) has tracked Canadians’ outlook on their own prospects, and those of the next generation. It has done so by asking two questions about inter-generational economic mobility. The first question asks Canadians whether they are better off or worse off than their parents were at their age. The second asks Canadians to look ahead at the prospects for the next generation.

The 2024 survey finds that the proportions of Canadians who feel financially worse off today than their parents were at their age, and who feel that the next generation will be worse off than they are, are both trending upwards.

Key findings:

• Canadians are currently evenly split between those who say that, financially speaking, they feel that they are better off than their parents were at their age, and those who say they feel they are worse off. This represents a significant shift from previous years, when the proportion feeling better off outnumbered the proportion feeling worse off by a significant margin.
• The proportion in 2024 feeling financially worse off than their parents is the highest recorded since this question was first asked in 1990.
• For Canadian adults under the age of 60, the proportion feeling worse off financially than their parents – for the first time since 1990 – has surpassed the proportion feeling better off.
• Quebecers are much less likely than other Canadians to say that they feel worse off financially than their parents were at their age.
• Canadians are currently more than twice as likely to feel pessimistic as they are to feel optimistic about the prospects for the next generation.
• Since 2022, the proportion expecting that the next generation will be worse off has grown among those in every age group, but more so among young adults age 18 to 29.
• Canadians outside Quebec are more likely than Quebecers to say they expect that the next generation will be worse off. Since 2022, the proportion saying they expect that the next generation will be worse off has increased significantly outside Quebec, but only marginally within that province.
• Immigrants remain much more optimistic than those born in Canada about the prospects for upward mobility for their children.
• Opinions on the two questions covered in this report are closely related to political preferences, with those supporting the party currently in government being more likely to feel optimistic, and those supporting the official opposition being more likely to feel pessimistic.