{"id":18748,"date":"2018-05-19T04:13:59","date_gmt":"2018-05-19T04:13:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=18748"},"modified":"2018-05-19T04:13:59","modified_gmt":"2018-05-19T04:13:59","slug":"why-rural-people-are-happier-than-city-people-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=18748","title":{"rendered":"WHY RURAL PEOPLE ARE HAPPIER THAN CITY PEOPLE &#8211; STUDY"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Sheriff.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-18603\" src=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Sheriff.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"544\" height=\"155\" srcset=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Sheriff.jpg 1080w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Sheriff-300x86.jpg 300w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Sheriff-768x219.jpg 768w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Sheriff-1024x292.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 544px) 100vw, 544px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Canadians living in big cities may be disappointed to learn that their counterparts in small towns and rural areas are likely happier.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s according to researchers at McGill University in Montreal and the Vancouver School of Economics, who took a look at the happiness level of Canadians across Canada.<\/p>\n<p>They did that by compiling 400,000 responses from the Canadian Community Health Survey and the General Social Survey. They took a total of 1,215 communities from across the country into account.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers then analyzed respondents\u2019 answers on overall life satisfaction, matching them up with census data from Statistics Canada.<\/p>\n<p>They looked at which communities were happiest and least happy \u2014 and what characteristics those regions had.<\/p>\n<p>After all that, the paper explained that one trend was apparent:\u00a0\u201cLife is significantly less happy in urban areas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, they found that the population in the least happy communities was more than eight times higher than in the happiest ones.<\/p>\n<p><code><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- www.deltanewsroom.com --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2163942495525027\" data-ad-slot=\"1411897411\" data-ad-format=\"auto\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/code><\/p>\n<h3>Lack of community bond<\/h3>\n<p>The paper explained that city dwellers tend to be more unhappy, despite having higher incomes, lower unemployment rates and higher education.<\/p>\n<p>But perhaps the explanation lies in having a lack of community. Researchers noted that city dwellers are more likely to have moved recently, and have a lesser sense of belonging.<\/p>\n<p>Lesli Musicar, a Toronto-based therapist, explained that a larger population often means \u201cthere isn\u2019t the same feeling of safety.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople are generally less trusting,\u201d Musicar said. \u201cThere\u2019s a heterogeneous population, it\u2019s not a homogeneous population, it\u2019s not like in a small town where there is a lot more commonality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Musicar said that can mean prejudices exist, but the best solution is simply getting to know one another. One way of doing that is getting involved in community events.<\/p>\n<p>The paper also added that cities tend to have more newcomers or foreign-born citizens, which Musicar says can be a difficult experience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe new immigrant experience can be a very traumatic experience \u2014 the culture shock, the language, the uprooting and trying to re-establish yourself. It\u2019s a huge stress.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=-1&amp;pl=16196&amp;ad_type=59&amp;rl=180\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Other factors that may be hurting happiness<\/h3>\n<p>And there are housing prices, which are significantly higher in urban areas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe proportion of those spending more than 30 per cent of their incomes on housing is significantly higher in the urban areas,\u201d the paper explained.<\/p>\n<p>There are several other differences among city and rural communities. Rural-area dwellers are more likely to have some sort of religious affiliation, the paper notes.<\/p>\n<p>And commute times in cities are also higher \u2014 duration of travel is an average of 15 minutes in rural areas versus 22 minutes in cities. The paper explains that a dense population in cities may also affect commute quality.<\/p>\n<p>Along with higher commute times, Musicar says those living in cities may have less time with nature.\u201cNature can have a huge impact on people\u2019s mental health. When we\u2019re in the city, we don\u2019t necessarily feel that connection.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Researchers explain, however, that there are levels of happiness within each type of community. The happiest urban communities are almost as happy as their rural counterparts. But the least happy urban communities are \u201csubstantially less happy\u201d than the rural equivalent.(globalnews.ca)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/rural-happy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-18749\" src=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/rural-happy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"466\" srcset=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/rural-happy.jpg 480w, http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/rural-happy-300x291.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Canadians living in big cities may be disappointed to learn that their counterparts in small towns and rural areas are likely happier. That\u2019s according to researchers at McGill University in Montreal and the Vancouver School of Economics, who took a look at the happiness level of Canadians across Canada. They did that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[4666,4667,4668],"class_list":["post-18748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-lesli-musicar","tag-mcgill-university","tag-vancouver-school-of-economics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/rural-happy.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-4So","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18750,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18748\/revisions\/18750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}