CANADIANS obsessively compare their country with a certain neighbouring superpower. Often, the contrast is reassuring. Few Canadians would want the United States’ lax gun laws or its ridiculously expensive health care. Economic comparisons are usually more sobering. Canadians are less rich than Americans and have fewer globally famous brands. Silicon Valley exports high-tech disruption; Alberta’s tar sands produce pollution.

For Canadians who feel economically inferior, a recent report comparing millennials on both sides of the border had cheering news. Canadians born in the 1980s are better off than their American peers. The study by TD Bank, called “Canadian and US Millennials: One of These Is Not Like the Other”, was headline news when it was published in December.

Canadians aged 25 to 34 are more likely to have jobs than Americans of the same age (nearly 80% are employed, compared with less than 75% of Americans). American millennials are worse off than their compatriots from Generation X (the cohort that came just before them). In Canada millennials’ household incomes are 16% higher. Just over half are homeowners, compared with 36% in the United States.

Much of the millennial advantage can be traced to Canadian paternalism—that of the state and that of the youngsters’ indulgent parents. Canada’s public universities charge much lower tuition fees than their largely private American rivals, so students graduate with less debt. More important is the contribution of millennial women, whose employment rate is seven percentage points higher than that of their American sisters. Their greater willingness to work has a lot to do with laws that oblige employers to give new parents paid leave of up to 50 weeks. The United States, by contrast, is one of the few countries that do not mandate paid maternity leave.

Canada avoided the housing-market crash that struck the United States in the late 2000s, thanks to prudent banking regulation. That enabled parents to help their children buy their first homes. But this points to another factor, which is less cause for self-congratulation: a big part of Canadian millennials’ wealth is explained by the barely interrupted rise in house prices. Although banks are still prudent, low interest rates have encouraged house-buying and prices are reaching scary levels. If they drop, so will millennials’ spirits.