Report: Comparing the Standard of Living in America and Canada

This report provides a comprehensive comparison of the standard of living in America and Canada, analyzing various factors that influence the cost of living and overall well-being. It delves into aspects such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), disposable income, food costs, housing expenses, healthcare services, infrastructure, education systems, job opportunities, political stability, crime rates, competitiveness, utility costs, and rights to live. The analysis reveals that while America boasts a higher GDP, Canada offers advantages in healthcare, education, and housing affordability, ultimately impacting the quality of life for its residents. The report concludes with recommendations based on these findings, suggesting that Canada provides a more suitable environment for living considering the balance between cost and quality of life.

Life Comparison Between America And Canada 1
COMPARISON OF LIFE IN AMERICA AND CANADA
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Life Comparison Between America And Canada 2
Table of Contents
Summary..........................................................................................................................................3
1.0 Introduction...........................................................................................................................3
2.0 Factors Affecting the Standard of Living.............................................................................4
2.1 Gross Domestic Product.........................................................................................................4
2.3. Food......................................................................................................................................7
2.4. Housing.................................................................................................................................8
2.5. Health Services.....................................................................................................................9
2.6. Infrastructure.......................................................................................................................10
2.7. Education............................................................................................................................11
2.8. Job Opportunities................................................................................................................12
2.9. Country Political stability and Crime rate Accident Rate...................................................14
2.9.1. Competitiveness...........................................................................................................15
2.9.2 Utility cost.........................................................................................................................15
2.9.3 Rights to live.....................................................................................................................16
3.0. Conclusion and Recommendations.........................................................................................16
4.0. List of References...................................................................................................................18

Life Comparison Between America And Canada 3
Summary
The cost of living is the total amount of money used to sustain an individual, and always
differs in accordance to the region. The major factor affecting the cost of living is the prices of
goods and services that are also determined by various factors such as the demand and supply of
the products and services, the Gross deistic product, and many others. America is considered as
the most prestigious country and therefore, most people dream to live in America than other parts
of the world. It is the human nature to compare their well-being to others, in relation to the
quality of services and products received and that extends to the country level. Richer countries
are always more happier than poor counties since the availability of the superior feeling among
the residents. However, when the factors are broken down, the cost of living in America is much
different and higher than other countries such as Canada that offers better service and suitable
environment for living. Factors such as cheaper education system, healthcare sea services, and
peace of mind make it the most suitable country in America.
1.0 Introduction
The wellbeing of an individual is determined by the cost of living in a particular area that is total
amount of money that an individual needs to sustain the living standard. It concerns the basic
needs such as food, housing, clothing, healthcare and many others (Atalla, Bigerna, Bollino, &
Fuentes 2017, p. 116). Different cities have different cost of living and are affected by various
factors such as the country’s economic, social, and environmental factors (Tan 2016, p. 23). The
paper explores, the various factors that determine the cost of living in both Canada and America,
and the come up with a conclusive recommendation to determine the best city to hail in.

Life Comparison Between America And Canada 4
Canada is located on the northern side of the North America content covering an area of about
9.98 million square kilometers, thereby making the country to the second largest in the world and
most of the areas are covered by forest, rocky mountains and tundra. The Canada has ten
provinces and is sparsely populated with approximately 35,151,728 people ranking the country at
number 38 as the most populated in the world. Canada is a major supplier of the agricultural
products and leading energy exporter. Canada ranks as the fifteenth in the nominal per capita
income global rating and tenth in the human development index ranking. These factors are
attributed to the low level of corruption, civil liberties, high level, of education, economic
freedom and many others that eventually affect the quality and cost of living (Bricker, Dettling,
Henriques, Hsu, , Jacobs, Moore, Pack, Sabelhaus, Thompson, & Windle 2017, p. 89). America
also known as the United States of America is situated in the Northern American continent too,
and covers about 3,805,927 square miles with a population of about 320,061,700. America is the
third largest country, with a mixed economy (Koth & Debeaumont 2017).
2.0 Factors Affecting the Standard of Living
The two countries appear remarkably similar as both display impressive infrastructure system,
high socioeconomic profile, diverse ethnicity, and sprawl. However, when the factors are further
broken down into smaller traits and analyzed, they show big contrast that brings a difference in
the level of living standard and well being of an individual.
2.1 Gross Domestic Product

Life Comparison Between America And Canada 5
The standard of living in a nation is mostly determined by the GDP. GDP is the monetary value
of all the finished products and services within a country’s border at a specific time frame and
helps in determining the economic activity of a nation (Chien & Mistry 2013, p. 9). GDP
includes the consumption, government expenditure, investment, and export fewer imports (James
Ming 2015, p. 20). The mode for measuring GDP is uniform, making possible for economics to
determine and compare the cost of living of various nations. The GDP is calculated using based
on two approaches that are production and income based. The production approach determines
the value of a finished product regarding the cost of the material and services involved, while the
income approach determines the GDP about the amount of the coins spent to acquire a product or
a service. However, some countries have invested in the international market; their economic
health is the best measure of Gross National Income that covers both the domestic and foreign
investments (James 2015). The prices of goods differ in countries, and this is always determined
using the real GDP by comparing the prices of a product or service between current and base
year.
According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), the formula for real GDP per capita is
real GDP/population. The inflation of a country always fluctuates in different parts of the year
and therefore, if the GDP stays in the negative then the county’s economy tends to recess, and if
the time continues, the country goes into depression, then prices of goods and services tend to
inflate (James 2015). The GDP tends to impact directly on the personal finance, investment and
the availability of employment. This in return affects the cost of living.
The table 1 shows Canadian GDP from 2012 to 2018, projecting to 2022. In 2017 the gross
domestic product per capita in Canada was about 43,611.26 U.S dollars. In 2014 Canada had one
of the largest GDP per capita values in the world. It shows steady growth from 2010 to 2013

Life Comparison Between America And Canada 6
with a difference of about 1.2% and then dropped up to 2017. On the other hand, table 2 shows
America GDP, that tends to advance annually too from 2010 with about 1.8 % till 2014 that it
dropped, ringing the value to negative (Tan 2016, p. 7). From 2016 the GDP the started
increasing again and is projected to increase steadily by 2.5% up to 2020. From the statistic it is
notable that the GDP of an American is higher than that of a Canadian, this high percentage
cannot translate to the well being of the most of the Americans since the per capita GDP is much
higher. The high GDP makes the standard of living to go higher while obtaining key elements
such as water, food shelter, and health service.
Figure 1: Shows GDP of Canada

Life Comparison Between America And Canada 7
Figure 2: Shows GDP of America
2.2. Disposable Income
The cost of living in an area at an individual level is most appropriately determined by the
amount of salary received since money determines the amount and quality of services and
products received (Smith 2012, p.5). When an individual has low disposable income, the quality
of services received is also low, and when the deposable incomes are more, the quality and
amount of the products increases. Several studies shows that rich people tend to have higher
well-being compared to individuals who are poor, therefore the latter are always less happy (Eksi
& Kaya 2017). The difference in the amount of disposable income varies per job specifications,
country, and employer. The average salary for both Canadian and an American are perceived to
be most of the same amount (George & Rhodes 2017, p. 7). After taxation, a Canadian averagely
receives $2,773.50 while an America gets $ 3,258.85 per month ranking them number 24 and 12
respectively in the whole world.

Life Comparison Between America And Canada 8
2.3. Food
Food is the basic need of a human being as it’s the source of energy. Unavailability of adequate
and good quality food, results into poor feeding styles that eventually translate into diseases such
as kwashiorkor, cancer, obesity, cardiovascular disease and many others (Eksi & Kaya 2017,
p.34). Food and drinks cost are always priced about the item and the area and are relatively the
same in both united states and Canada. However, the average value of the food is cheaper in
Canada than in America (Korth & DeBeaumont 2017, p. 51). Agriculture production being one
of the major economies in Canada makes more agricultural products such as fruits to be less
expensive in the country than in America, and on the other hand, America is a mixed economy
with various processing companies experience cheaper processed food items than in Canadians.
From the average of the randomly picked food items below, it is observed that the total cost of
those food items is less in Canada with a small margin.
Canada ($) America ($)
Milk(1l) 1.67 0.85
Loaf of bread(500g) 2.77 3.30
Chicken breast (1kg) 9.05 8.50
Rice(1kg) 2.97 3.95
Total cost 16.46 16.6
Table 1: Shows Comparison of essential food items between America and Canada
2.4. Housing

Life Comparison Between America And Canada 9
Housing or shelter is one of the fundamental needs of a human being and is also a determinant
used to measure the well being of an individual and the whole country. Unavailability of shelter
poses an individual to various threats such burglary and diseases such as pneumonia. When the
number of houses in a country is less than the total population, then the cost of housing tends to
go up. This eventually translates to a high living standard in a country.
Type of the house Value of renting a
house in Canada
($)
Value of renting a
house in America($ )
Furnished one-bedroom house in the city 930.31 1200.99
furnished one-bedroom house outside of a city 742.32 942.42
Furnished three-bedroom house in the city 1,498.83 1933.65
furnished-three bedroom outside of a city 1,203.00 1,501.72
Table 2: Shows comparison accommodation rate in Canada and America
From the table, it is evident that the prices of houses in Canada are much lower than in America,
a factor that was contributed by the huge mortgage in America in the past years. All the houses
that were privately owned in America were taken by the government entities such Federal
Housing Administration and the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs that all regulate the system
of housing making it too complicated, encouraging homeownership (Whaples 2011, p. 34).
While in Canada, housing policy promotes the access to the house through a variety of tenure:
whereby it does not explicitly encourage homeownership.
In Canada, the conventional mortgages are the five-year fixed rate closed mortgage unlike in the
U.S the 30-year fixed-rate open mortgage has been the most common(Dupras 2017, p. 6). The
type of mortgage in the U.S, therefore, makes many residents own their own homes, making it

Life Comparison Between America And Canada 10
difficult for the non-residents to get a house. The few houses in America left for renting
eventually becomes more expensive since the demand is very high.
2.5. Health Services
Health services entail the availability of affordable health services to a person. The quality and
quantity of health services determine the life expectancy of an individual. America and Canadian
contains some of the well-known health services in the world, however, according to the 2012
OECD Health data study, America ranks as number one the most expensive healthcare services
with a per capita of $ 8,233, and Canada with health care per capita of $ 4,300 is cheaper than
America. According to the U.S National Research Council, the Canadians tends to live longer
than the Americans, an indication that latter are less healthy. The report further estimates that a
Canadian born in 2007 is expected to live to about 79.3 for men and 82.3 years for girls, much
more compared to 75.6 and 80.1 respectively in America (Whaples 2011, p. 90).
The difference in life expectancy is brought about by the common smoking habit of Americans
and availability of fat and fatty foods that causes cardiovascular disease and obesity ranking it to
number 26 and Canada as number 10 in the whole world according to OECD. The smoking habit
eventually affects the infant life expectancy in America. Most of the infants record low birth
weight and tend to have a high mortality rate. However much the mortality rate Is high, and the
life expectancy is low, amerce commands the best doctors that are capable of treating so many
chronic diseases such as cancer, making a large number of patients to travel to America in search
of the services. As it is human nature, the habit is more likely to be adopted by an immigrant or a
newcomer that will eventually die before the right time. Finally, Americans tend to pay more

Life Comparison Between America And Canada 11
money from their Gross domestic product towards health care by about 17% than the Canadians
that pay about 11%.
Canada America
70
72
74
76
78
80
82
84
male
female
Figure 3: Shows the Life Expectancy of America and Canada
2.6. Infrastructure
Infrastructure is very essential as it allows the movement of people, products, and services from
one place to another. In a situation of inadequate infrastructure system, the movement tends to be
difficult and expensive. United States infrastructure is one of the most intricate transportation
networks in the world (Morris 2016). The country has over 4million highways that extend to
thousand, miles, numerous airports and railways lines that are capable of getting more people
and goods to more various places than any country in the world. The Interstate Highway System
dictates over one percent of the America transportation networks

Life Comparison Between America And Canada 12
On the same note, Canada’s infrastructure is one of the best-developed in the world since it
meets the standard needed for high-tech business and international trade. These are about 36,114
kilometers of railways, 901,902 kilometers of roads that access all the major cities of Canada the
developed highways and rails allow approximately 400 million tons of goods into and out of the
country enabling good business. The excellent infrastructure favors the bus travelers who are
always charged for about 1.75 CAD/km. However, the total miles of the road stretch is only
about 648,000 that is far less to that of America.
2.7. Education
Apart from the basic needs of human being, the secondary requirements such as the cost of
educations determine the level of living standards of a country. A well-educated individual is
perceived to have a better lifestyle than an educated individual. The cost of tuition varies from
country to country and also depends on the level and quality of education offered by the service
provider. A large number of students tend to cross across borders in search of better academic
services. The cost of these educational services tends to vary by the country and the level of
education perceived.
A large number of students are always in big debts resulting from the search of education in
America that is higher than other countries. In America, it cost averagely about $ 37,600 in
average public college and above $ 160, 000 in prestigious schools such as Harvard (Tan 2016).
In the other hand, the average cost for a degree level starts at $ 8,000 to about $ 28,000, with
about $ 50,000 in the most prestigious colleges, which is approximately one-third of a degree
pursued in Harvard University. Moreover, Canada provides free public education to all citizens