{"id":11133,"date":"2025-04-11T03:56:18","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T18:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3d-cad-design.com\/have-a-pet-they-could-boost-your-happiness-as-much-as-120k-a-year-national\/"},"modified":"2025-04-11T03:56:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T18:56:18","slug":"have-a-pet-they-could-boost-your-happiness-as-much-as-120k-a-year-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3d-cad-design.com\/have-a-pet-they-could-boost-your-happiness-as-much-as-120k-a-year-national\/","title":{"rendered":"Have a pet? They could boost your happiness as much as $120K a year – National"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Want to know what\u2019s worth as much as a six-figure pay rise?<\/p>\n

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A pet.<\/p>\n

New research shows that the benefits of having a dog or a cat may be equivalent to those you get from receiving an extra $120,000 CAD a year.<\/p>\n

The study, published March 31 in the journal Social Indicators Research, <\/em>shed light on the impact pets have on human happiness, finding that they can also give a life satisfaction boost equal to regular hangouts with friends or even being married.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore and more people are reporting pets to be members of the family,\u201d said Jacklyn Ellis, director of behaviour, at the Toronto Humane Society. \u201cSo there is certainly a shift in the way we think of how these animals fit into our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sixty per cent of Canadian households own at least one cat or dog, according to 2022 data from the Canadian Animal Health Institute (CAHI), with an estimated 8.5 million cats and 7.9 million dogs in homes across the country.<\/p>\n

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Studies have already shown that animals can boost both physical and mental health, helping to reduce stress, encourage physical activity, and even contribute to a longer life.<\/p>\n

\u201cCompanionship, this certainly helps foster positive mental health on a day-to-day basis, which can help make you more resilient to crises that come up and certainly are associated with more satisfaction scores and better quality of life assessments to pet owners,\u201d Ellis said.<\/p>\n

Although this is known, the researchers from the new United Kingdom data wanted to understand if owning a pet directly boosts happiness, rather than it being a case that happy people tend to own pets.<\/p>\n

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While pet ownership is often linked with greater well-being, the study emphasized that this relationship is complex \u2014 and sometimes it\u2019s people facing loneliness or life challenges who seek out pets, rather than the other way around.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is substantial evidence from psychology and medicine that pets are associated with better health and higher life satisfaction of their human companions. Yet whether this relationship is causal or purely a correlation remains largely unknown,\u201d the researchers said at the introduction of their study.<\/p>\n

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The study also aimed to quantify the mental benefits of pet care on psychological well-being and life satisfaction.<\/p>\n

Ellis mentioned that she had never seen this approach before and called the results \u201cfascinating.\u201d<\/p>\n

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To see how pets affect happiness, researchers used a survey in the U.K. with data from 2,500 households. They focused on households with cats and dogs, not other pets like fish or rabbits.<\/p>\n

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Participants, ages 16 to 99, rated their overall life satisfaction. The researchers took into account things like personality, health, and social connections, and used a method called \u201cinstrumental variables\u201d to make sure pet ownership wasn\u2019t just a result of being happier.<\/p>\n

This helped them figure out how they say pets alone impact life satisfaction.<\/p>\n

When researchers compared pet owners to non-pet owners, they found that pet owners actually reported slightly lower life satisfaction on average.\u00a0On a scale of one to seven, pet owners scored 5.2, while non-pet owners came in slightly higher at 5.29.<\/p>\n

But the researchers stressed that the small difference doesn\u2019t necessarily mean pets make people less happy. The researchers said this could be because people who are already feeling lonely or low may be more likely to get a pet for companionship. \u00a0That\u2019s why the study used data to figure out the real cause-and-effect relationship.<\/p>\n

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When it comes to pets, about 22 per cent of the people in the study said they cared for a pet\u2014 either a cat, a dog, or another type of animal.<\/p>\n

The researchers noticed some clear trends. For example, people who owned pets tended to be more extroverted, open and conscientious. They were also more likely to be married and have kids living with them, which often means a bigger household.<\/p>\n