Five Facts about the 2019 Nova Scotia Quality of Life Survey
The Nova Scotia Quality of Life Initiative (NSQOLI) aspires to centre wellbeing as a measure of success and progress that guides us all.
And for wellbeing to be at the heart of decision-making, we have to do just that – measure it.
We take a unique approach to measuring wellbeing: the Nova Scotia Quality of Life Survey (NSQOLS), a survey that asks you about how your life in Nova Scotia is going and how you’re doing. It asks you, for example, what you think about the quality of healthcare where you live, how strong your sense of belonging to community is, whether you have enough time (and access) to do the things you want, and how you’d rate your life satisfaction.
We undertook the first NSQOLS in 2019 and are preparing to re-survey Nova Scotia residents in 2025. How much do you know about the survey that continues to make waves here in Nova Scotia and around the world?
Here are five facts about the first Nova Scotia Quality of Life Survey:
The 2019 NSQOLS was modelled after the Canadian Index of Wellbeing’s ‘Community Wellbeing Survey.’
The Canadian Index of Wellbeing (CIW), based at the University of Waterloo, is our primary academic partner in the NSQOLI.
The CIW regularly reports on the quality of life of Canadians – nationally, provincially, and locally – and they are recognized internationally as one of the leading organizations measuring wellbeing. Before working with us to undertake the NSQOLS, they’d administered their Community Wellbeing Survey in over a dozen municipalities across Canada.
Modelling the NSQOLS after the CIW’s Community Wellbeing Survey ensures its validity while still reflecting our specific context.
We were the first organization outside government in Canada to undertake a quality of life survey and it was the first provincewide survey of its kind.
The CIW has partnered with municipalities to undertake the survey, but as a non-profit organization, we at Engage Nova Scotia were the first group outside government to do it.
Unlike other surveys and initiatives, we collaborate with public, private, academic, and community sectors to:Equip all community members with insights and tools they can use to address complex challenges and rise to opportunities.
Invest in what matters most.
Affect change in their own backyards.
Today, Nova Scotia is still the only province in Canada to have undertaken a quality of life survey. The territorial government in Yukon undertook the survey territory-wide in 2020. We will be the only province to do it twice when we re-survey in 2024.
Invitation for Nova Scotians to check their mailbox and fill out the 2019 Nova Scotia Quality of Life Survey.
3. Our survey response was a whopping 16% because of local leaders who championed the survey across Nova Scotia.
A strength of the NSQOLI is that it’s a many-hands, many-years effort. So is the survey that’s central to it.
We organized nine teams of local leaders across the province to get the word out about the survey in their communities. Because those ‘local leadership teams’ were so successful, Nova Scotia residents knew the survey was about measuring what mattered to them and knew filling it out was an important opportunity to share what it’s like to live in Nova Scotia, what we’re proud of, and what needs to change.
Eighty thousand households across the province (one-in-five) received an invitation in the mail to fill out the NSQOLS. We also worked with partners to invite and facilitate often under-surveyed groups of people to fill out the survey, too.
The hard work of partners, our team, and all of you who filled out the survey resulted in a 16% response rate and a reliable dataset that is representative of our province.
4. People who responded to the survey were aged 16 to 102 and from every corner of the province.
The invitations to complete the survey asked that the person aged 16 and up in the household whose birthday was closest to a certain date fill it out. This detail helped to ensure that whoever filled out the survey represents who lives in Nova Scotia (instead of, say, everyone’s oldest brother filling out the survey).
Between local leadership teams, strategic outreach, media attention, and details like above, the NSQOLS data includes 12,826 completed surveys.
The number of completed surveys for each of Nova Scotia’s ten ‘functional economic regions’ is shown by this map:
Map of Nova Scotia, its 10 functional economic regions, and the number of survey respondents per region.
Psst! What’s a functional economic region?
Functional economic regions have boundaries that reflect the realities of how people live, shop, work, and socialize, rather than municipal and county lines. The idea is that they enable more place-based policies.
You can see 2019 NSQOLS results for functional economic regions, forward sortation areas (the first three digits of a postal code), the province overall, and anywhere in between using our Wellbeing Mapping Tool or unique analyses we can provide.
5. The NSQOLS asked 230 questions and close to 13,000 people responded, making it the largest quality of life dataset in Canada.
Thanks to you and your 12,826 completed surveys of 230 questions, Nova Scotia has the largest quality of life dataset in Canada at its fingertips, and we can all use it to explore what works for our wellbeing.
We’ve shared survey results in some conventional ways, like reports, and we’ve also created interactive online tools that don’t exist anywhere else – namely, the Wellbeing Mapping Tool and the Wellbeing Analysis Tool.
These two tools help us to explore the data more easily than if you were looking at it ‘raw,’ and they enable you to understand quality of life in Nova Scotia so you can:
Draft government policies, frameworks, and budgets that centre wellbeing.
Cite survey results in funding proposals, publications, media, and reports.
Take action that help you, and others, be healthier and happier.
Design programs and services that improve people’s lives.
Advocate for things you know your community needs.
Foster wellbeing at your school or workplace.
…to name a few.
We think of the NSQOLS as an opportunity to listen to Nova Scotians about what makes for a good quality of life. We listen to each other every day – to family and friends, co-workers and classmates, neighbours and news outlets. But we don’t often get to listen to thousands of people all at once.
This is our chance to do that, to learn from what’s been expressed and make decisions that are informed by what we now know, or have always known but now have data to back up.
Our vision is for a more vibrant, inclusive, equitable, and resilient province. Measuring what matters with the NSQOLS and using the data that results from it is helping us find the way there.