How have Canada’s rankings changed over the past decade across different quality-of-life indices (HDI, Liveability, OECD Better Life)?

Executive summary — Quick verdict on Canada’s quality‑of‑life trajectory

Canada’s position on major quality‑of‑life measures shows small numerical shifts but no dramatic collapse or surge across the last decade: the HDI has hovered in the mid‑teens globally with scores around 0.93–0.94, while city liveability for Canadian cities has fluctuated with Vancouver remaining the top national performer into 2025 and other cities falling or recovering; the OECD Better Life Index sources in the dataset do not supply a decade‑long ranking time series. This assessment synthesizes available HDI snapshots, the EIU Global Liveability 2025 city rankings, and OECD materials that describe methodology but do not report longitudinal ranks for Canada ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]}.

1. A steady Human Development Index — small ranking moves, stable scores

Available HDI reporting shows Canada sustaining a very high HDI score around 0.93–0.94, with a reported score of 0.934 in 2021 and 0.935 in 2022 and rankings reported as 16th in 2021 and 18th in 2022, indicating a minor downward tick in rank despite essentially stable scores ^[1]. An alternate HDI snapshot lists Canada at 16th with a 0.939 score in an earlier publication, illustrating that year‑to‑year methodological recalibrations or different reporting vintages explain small ranking changes more than large shifts in underlying human development ^[2]. The data imply stability in core well‑being metrics (life expectancy, education, income) even as rank among other high‑scoring countries drifts.

2. City liveability: Vancouver holds the flag while others move up and down

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Index 2025 records Vancouver as the sole Canadian city in the top 10, ranked 10th with a 95.8 score, while Calgary and other Canadian cities have seen declines relative to their positions a decade prior, with Calgary noted to have fallen to 18th in 2025 amid deteriorating healthcare scores ^{[3] [4] [5]}. The EIU’s annual methodology evaluates stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure, so city shifts reflect localized changes in these domains rather than national policy alone ^{[3] [5]}. The EIU material thus paints a picture of localized volatility in urban liveability within an overall high baseline for Canadian cities, with Vancouver maintaining comparative strength in 2025.

3. OECD Better Life Index: method explained but no time series in these sources

OECD materials in the dataset describe the Better Life Index’s 11‑dimension methodology and an interactive tool that allows weighting by users, but they do not provide a ten‑year ranking series for Canada or an unambiguous national rank trajectory ^[7]. The “How’s Life in CANADA?” briefing supplies a snapshot of well‑being indicators and comparative strengths and weaknesses but explicitly lacks historical ranking data for the HDI, EIU liveability, or OECD indices over a decade ^[6]. The OECD Economic Survey for Canada similarly focuses on macroeconomic and policy issues without offering a decade‑long set of quality‑of‑life rankings ^[8]. Therefore, no claim about a decade‑long OECD Better Life rank change can be substantiated from these documents alone.

4. Reconciling the different measures: stability, local variation, and data gaps

Cross‑comparing the HDI and EIU liveability results shows different units of analysis and drivers: HDI measures national averages of health, education, and income and changes little year‑to‑year among high‑income countries, while the EIU liveability index captures city‑level variations driven by health services, stability, and infrastructure, which can shift more rapidly and vary between cities ^{[1] [5]}. The OECD material highlights dimensions of well‑being but does not fill the temporal gap; thus apparent contradictions (stable HDI vs. moving city ranks) resolve when recognizing these indices measure different phenomena at different scales and update via different processes ^{[2] [3] [7]}.

5. What the evidence does and does not support — clear findings and unanswered questions

The evidence clearly supports that Canada has maintained a very high HDI score with only minor rank fluctuations and that Vancouver remained Canada’s top EIU liveability performer in 2025 while other cities like Calgary slid ^{[1] [3]}. The evidence does not support a definitive decade‑long trajectory for the OECD Better Life Index because the cited OECD sources do not present longitudinal ranks for Canada ^{[6] [7] [8]}. For a full decade‑long comparison across all three measures one would need the annual HDI tables, the EIU liveability series for each Canadian city for each year, and OECD time‑series exports from the Better Life interactive tool — none of which are present in the current document set.