If you think you know everything about Canada, a new global Ipsos survey shows that most Canadians actually know less about their own country when it comes to perceptions on income equality, religion, obesity and age than their American counterparts.
The Ipsos Perils of Perception survey, released on Wednesday shows that Canadians have a high level of disconnect between perceptions and reality when it comes to the makeup of our country.
The survey of 33 countries shows that South Korea leads the way as the most accurate country while Mexico is the least accurate. Canada finished as the 17th least accurate country with the United States in 24th place.
Here are seven things we got wrong about the composition of Canadian society.
The 1 % are rich, but not as rich as we think
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The Ipsos survey found Canadians overestimated the proportion of household wealth owned by the wealthiest 1 per cent. The average guess is that the 1 per cent own 55 per cent of our wealth, when the actual figure is 25 per cent. Ipsos used data from Credit Suisse for this survey question.
We are thicker around the waist
When it comes to obesity, Canadians underestimated how fat we are as a country. The average guess was that 43 per cent of those over the age of 20 are overweight or obese, when the number is actually a heftier 56 per cent.
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Ipsos used obesity data collected from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington.
We are not as multicultural as we think
While immigration has become a hot-button issue as Canada prepares to welcome Syrian refugees, Ipsos found we don’t have an accurate understanding of the proportion of immigrants in our society.
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On average we believe that 39 per cent of the population are immigrants, when the actual figure is 21 per cent. The data for this question was taken from the 2013 United Nations International Migration study.
A country of atheists?
When it comes to religion, Canadians widely overestimated the proportion of atheists, agnostics and those who do not affiliate themselves with any religion, according to Ipsos. The average perception is that 41 per cent are not affiliated with a religion. The actual figure is 24 per cent. Ipsos used data for this question from the Pew Research Center.
What’s our age again?
Canadians overestimated the proportion of the population under the age of 14 at 26 per cent, higher than the real figure of 16 per cent. We were also off when it came to the average of those in the country: most people guessed 50. The real figure is 42.
More of us live in the country
On average Canadians overestimate the number of people who live in rural areas, and underestimate our urban populations. The public’s average guess is 34 per cent of the population is based in rural areas, when the actual figure is only 18 per cent.
Access to the internet at home
Canadians underestimated that 82 per cent of us have access to the internet at home through a computer or mobile device, when the actual figure is 90 per cent, Ipsos found. The survey also found that people in developing countries tend to overestimate the proportion of people who have internet access while the opposite is true in developed countries
The Ipsos MORI Perils of Perception Survey interviewed 25,556 people online Oct. 1 to Oct. 16, 2015 in 33 countries. The survey is considered accurate in Canada within +/- 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The data for each question is taken from a variety of verified sources for each question and country and a full list of sources can be found here.
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