In 2022, the well-being of residents in Halifax was included as one of the topline goals of the new five-year economic strategy, People. Planet. Prosperity. Consequently, the Partnership added questions to monitor residents’ perceptions of quality of life in the 2022 City Matters Survey. The 2023 survey provided the first set of results to compare against the 2022 benchmarks.

One such measure was the response to the question “How satisfied are you with your life nowadays?” A scale from 0 to 10 was used with 0 meaning “not at all” and 10 meaning “completely.” The share with a low score, a rating of four or less, was used as a headline measure for the Economic Strategy.

The 2023 survey found that 12.8% of respondents gave a score of four or less, a decrease (improvement) from 14.4% in 2022. The share of respondents giving a high score of seven or more increased to 66.8% from 62.1% in 2022. The mean score rose from 6.7 in 2022 to 7.6 in 2023.

Not surprisingly, residents of higher-income households tended to give a higher score in life-satisfaction (8.1) than residents of lower-income households (7.0). Life-satisfaction scores were slightly higher in rural Halifax (7.7) compared to urban Halifax (7.5). Also, there was a noticeable difference in life-satisfaction between male (7.9) and female (7.3) respondents.

More than 80% of residents continue to be satisfied with Halifax as a place to live, as a place for recreation and play, and as a place to raise a family. Also, more than 75% of residents are satisfied with Halifax as a place to work, as a place for young people, and as a place to retire.

Trust is critical to any well-functioning society. Levels of trust reported by Halifax residents improved in 2023. The share of residents saying that they believe most people can be trusted increased to 63.8% in 2023, up from 59.2% in 2022. More residents in rural Halifax (71.2%) than in urban Halifax (61.5%) believe most people can be trusted. Residents’ trust in government (federal/provincial/municipal) is 39.2% a slight decline from the 2022 benchmark. Trust in elected officials, though higher than in the previous year, remains lowest compared to other institutions (e.g., academics, police, businesses) at 30.9%.

Halifax Transit saw total ridership increase by 25.9% in 2022-23, providing close to 17 million passenger-rides throughout the year. Despite the large increase, ridership still remained much lower than pre-pandemic levels. Total hours of service provided by Halifax Transit decreased some 2,500 hours in 2022-23. However, the year still clocked in the second most hours of service at 924,719, behind only 2021-22.

Public transit accessibility is in part a function of affordability. Halifax’s public transit fares are some of the most affordable across benchmark cities. Halifax fares are the second lowest for single rides ($2.75), monthly passes ($82.50), seniors ($2.00), and youth ($2.00).

Most Haligonians (82.3%) drove to work in a car, truck, or a van, either as the driver or a passenger according to the 2021 Census. The bus was used primarily by 7.4% to commute to work while 0.2% used the ferry.

There was an improvement of 2.2 minutes in the average commute time to work in Halifax from 2016 when it was 24.0 minutes to 2021 at 21.8 minutes. Across benchmark cities, Halifax’s average commute time was the third lowest behind only St. John’s and Quebec City. The share of residents whose daily commute time was 30 minutes or more also declined by 6.7 percentage points to 27.6% in 2021. This is the fourth lowest share across benchmark cities.

Note that these commuting data were collected in May 2021 when Halifax was under a COVID-19 lockdown and, thus, may be significantly affected by factors like large numbers of employees working from home.

The impacts of and response to the COVID-19 pandemic were top of mind beginning in early 2020. Now with the effects of the pandemic receding and rapid population growth continuing, basic access to the health care system is a higher priority issue.

Statistics Canada data from 2021 show that 86.3% of Nova Scotians reported having access to a regular health care provider, fifth highest among provinces. In Halifax, the waitlist for a family doctor ballooned to over 50,000 by the end of 2022, with an additional 29,600 names being added to the list over the year.

Nova Scotia ranked poorly in 2021 in terms of the prevalence of conditions and activities that impact health. It had the country’s second highest rates of arthritis, mood disorders, regular smoking, daily cannabis use, and heavy drinking.

On a more positive note, Nova Scotia ranked third best in 2021 in the shares of those who reported having “very good” or “excellent” mental health (60.1%) and being “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with life (92.4%). The former figure is down substantially from 2020, decreasing by 6.4 percentage points, but a decline in self-reported mental health is not surprising during a once-in-a-century global pandemic.

Although they have trended downward over the longer term, the Crime Severity Index (CSI)¹and Violent Crime Severity Index (VCSI)²scores have risen in Halifax in recent years. The CSI and VCSI, published by Statistics Canada, measure the incidence and severity of crimes across Canada. The most recent figures available are for 2021.

Halifax had a CSI score of 65.7 in 2021 putting it in the middle of the pack among benchmark cities. Though the CSI score grew by 3.7 points since 2020, the 2021 score was 69.1 points below the peak year of 2004. From 2004 through 2016, Halifax’s CSI declined annually in all but one year. Since 2016, however, the CSI in Halifax has not moved up or down substantially.

Halifax’s VCSI score in 2021 was 91.7 the third highest across benchmark cities behind only Winnipeg (159.6) and St. John’s (98.2). Halifax’s VCSI score declined sharply from 2006 through 2014, but it has been on an upward trend since then.

With HalifACT – Halifax’s comprehensive climate action plan – as a blueprint, the municipality updated its solid waste strategy in 2022. It added goals to reduce waste generation by 30% and to achieve 100% waste-diversion by 2050. In 2022, the waste-diversion rate for the municipality was 57%, and the disposal rate in 2021 was 361 kg per capita.

In 2022, 33% of Nova Scotia’s energy came from renewable sources. This figure was seven percentage points short of the legislated requirement. The gap in meeting the requirement for renewable-energy supply was a result of delays in getting hydroelectric power from Muskrat Falls. Despite initial delays, both the province and Nova Scotia Power remain confident that the 80% target for renewable-energy supply will be met by 2030.

Halifax Regional Municipality updated recent figures for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions after improving its GHG-inventory methodology. These updates resulted in increased emissions values for every year since 2016. In 2021, the latest year that data are available, GHG emissions declined 0.12% to 4.92 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents. This figure is 7.4% below 2016’s level. To achieve the goal of 1.4 MtCO2e by 2030, a decline of 13.0% per year is required. However, a faster annual reduction would be required after 2030 to reach the goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

Across sectors, the largest source of GHG emissions in 2021 was residential (34.8%) followed by institutional/commercial (26.5%), transportation (20.3%), industrial (15.8%), and waste (2.7%). The agriculture/forest sector was net-positive in the calculations. (It absorbed 0.006 MtCO2e.)

According to the Canadian Environmental Quality Index (Can-EQI) developed by Dalhousie University Professor Daniel Rainham and his colleagues, Halifax had the second highest score across benchmark cities. The Can-EQI is a composite measure of environmental conditions at the neighbourhood level (formally: dissemination areas within population centres) across Canadian cities, comprising nine indicators³that are weighted based on their importance to human health. Datasets were averaged over a five-year period from 2014 to 2018. Within urban Halifax, areas in and around Point Pleasant Park had the highest score for environmental quality, whereas Burnside Park had the lowest environmental quality.

Approximately 89.5% of Halifax’s urban land area was classified as green in 2022, the second most across benchmark cities.