Since April 2022, Canadians have been reporting slow but steady improvements in anxiety and depression.

With input from people with lived experience and other stakeholders, we explore which Canadians are more likely to report improvements in self-rated mental health since July 2022, and which Canadians are still struggling with high levels of depression and anxiety.

As Canada moves further from the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic and into a period of recovery, MHRC's national polling initiative evolves as we continue to ask Canadians questions about their mental health, calling this phase of our data collection the recovery period.

Our analysis reveals improvements in mental health indicators since July 2022 vary greatly across a variety of characteristics, including gender, age, self-identification characteristics, household income, and sectors of employment. Overall, Canadians employed in education, women and 2SLGBTQIA+ demonstrated the largest average improvements in self-reported levels of anxiety and depression in the recovery period.

Although this is a positive sign for the mental health of Canadians, average self-reported levels of anxiety and depression remain higher than before the pandemic. Since November 2022, Canadians report facing new challenges that are negatively impacting their mental health, such as inflation and food security.

A collection of our previously released research briefs providing an in-depth investigation of our polling results can be found here.