2015 Rankings: The Best Places to Live in Canada

It’s that time of year again - MoneySense Magazine has released its comprehensive report on Canada’s Best Places to Live 2015, highlighting 209 small, medium, and large cities across the country.

Let’s get the top 10 ranking out of the way because we know that’s what you came here to find out:

1. Boucherville, Quebec
2. Ottawa, Ontario
3. Burlington, Ontario
4. St. Albert, Alberta,
5. Blainville, Quebec
6. Oakville, Ontario
7. Stratford, Ontario
8. Levis, Quebec
9. North Vancouver (DM), British Columbia
10. Quebec, Quebec

It’s pretty clear that Ontario and Quebec received top honours this year. Oakville and Ottawa were both in the top 10 last year as well, in 7th and 4th, respectively. It’s great to see Burlington in 3rd place (jumped from a 5th place 2014 ranking) since we’ve seen a few condo developments popping up there over the last few years.

So, where does Toronto rank? Toronto fell from 32nd to 35th this year, mostly due to a relatively high crime rate, lack of affordable housing, low median household income, and an estimated unemployment rate of 8.25%. Toronto does however have relatively low taxes, a strong arts and sports community, decent weather, and highly walkable/bikeable neighbourhoods. Transit use also boosted Toronto’s ranking with 36.4% of the workforce depending on public transit.

Downtown Oakville

Another interesting ranking is that Vancouver fell from 39th to 46th, while North Vancouver (DM) found a place in the top 10, West Vancouver moved from 36th all the way up to 11th, and North Vancouver (CY) jumped from 28th to 20th. Vancouver ranked so low for much of the same reasons as Toronto, plus unfavourable weather and lower quality transit.

MoneySense arrived at these rankings by awarding points to each city based on 34 separate categories, with data about the Census Metropolitan Areas gathered from Census Agglomeration, Census Subdivisions, Statistics Canada, and Environics Analytics.

The categories were all weighted differently, with something like the estimated unemployment rate or weather being worth 10 points, and transit and doctors being worth 5 points. Based on the data collected, MoneySense would rank the top city for each category, awarding them full points, then as the cities descended the points decreased incrementally.

It’s important to note that the cities are also categorized as small, medium, or large. Small cities have a population of 100,000 or less. Medium cities have a population between 100,001 and 400,000, and large cities have a population greater than 400,001. Does size factor into the quality of living? One would assume so based on the top 10 list. Half of the cities in the top 10 are considered small, while three are medium-sized, and only two are large. Is it a coincidence that five small cities are in the top 10? Perhaps, because once you scroll passed 100th, the majority of cities are small. It seems that a small city has the ability to be the best, but also a higher percentage of being the worst.

It’s also important to note that Statistics Canada doesn’t have unemployment data later than 2011, so the estimated unemployment rates are based on MoneySense’s adjustments that they made based on current trends in the economic regions. This is a crucial category for the rankings because it is worth 10 points out of a total 103. If MoneySense’s calculations were off then it could significantly affect the rankings.

What do you think of this year’s rankings? Do you live in one of the top 10 cities? Click here to see the full ranking of all 209 cities.

Feature image: Burlington, Ontario