Paramedics top list of most respected occupations in Canada: Poll

A new survey suggests Canadians hold emergency responders and health-care workers in high esteem compared to most other professions.

The recent Maru Public Opinion poll finds that — out of 29 measured occupations — Canadians rank paramedics as the most respected job with firefighters coming in at number two. Nurses, doctors, and pharmacists all rank in the top six with farmers coming in at number four. (Full list below)

Firefighters ranked as the most respected profession in the 2021 version of the poll. Paramedics were not measured in last year’s poll.

At the other end of the spectrum, owners of social media platforms were rated as the least respected job for the second consecutive year. Car salesman, advertising practitioners, politicians, and union leaders, round out the bottom five.

The list of 29 occupations were presented to respondents in a random order and each were asked to rank them in one of four categories:

• Respect very much – worth 100 points
• Respect somewhat – worth 70 points
• Respect not very much – worth 30 points
• Respect not at all – worth 0 points

• The responses were then averaged out to give each occupations its ‘respect score.’ The average respect score for the 29 measured occupations was 67.9.

  2022 Respect score by profession

• Paramedics – 92.0
• Firefighters – 91.4
• Nurses – 89.6
• Farmers – 88.7
• Medical Doctors – 86.5
• Pharmacists – 85.1
• Members of Armed Forces – 84.2
• Scientists – 82.9
• Airline pilots – 82.4
• Grocery store workers – 80.8
• Transit workers – 80.6
• Teachers – 80.1
• Veterinarians – 79.9
• Engineers – 79.8
• Police officers – 70.5
• Judges – 68.8
• Private sector long-term care home operators – 62.7
• Journalists – 58.4
• Lawyers – 55.8
• Radio/TV talk show hosts – 54.0
• Bankers – 53.8
• Clergy – 52.9
• Professional athletes – 50.6
• Business executives – 48.6
• Union leaders – 46.7
• Elected members of parliament – 46.3
• Advertising practitioners – 41.6
• Car salespeople – 40.3
• Owners of social media platforms – 33.9

The pollsters randomly selected 1,500 Canadian adults as respondents on four different occasions between March 18 and May 3.

“The methodology ensures that the disproportionate sample sizes are balanced for the total results,” reads the methodology section of the Maru poll. “The data has been weighted by education, age, gender, and region, and by language in Quebec, to match the population according to the most recent census data so that the sample is representative of the entire adult population of Canada.”