moneysense.ca, 20/03/12
Canada’s Best Places to Live 2012
Check out how your community stacks up.
Top ten cities
- Ottawa
- Burlington
- Kingston
- Halifax
- Regina
- Brandon
- Fredericton
- Edmonton
- Red Deer
- Winnipeg
Previous Lists
When we speak of Canada’s diversity we refer to the geography of the land and the ethnic background of our people. Yet when you crunch the economic data, as we have for Canada’s Best Places to Live 2012, it becomes clear that how we live defines us as much as where we live. Not only is our urban experience varied depending on whether we live in downtown Montreal or in small-town Saskatchewan, but our ability to access health care or find a job or afford a home is as diverse as our land and our climate.
What is more, the economic factors that determine how we live are always evolving. Thirty years ago, the place to be for jobs would have been southern Ontario. Today, as the manufacturing sector falters, we find good jobs are becoming scarce but social services left behind from good economic times are abundant. Similarly, Alberta and Saskatchewan are being transformed by the boom in oil, gas and other commodities. This puts a strain on urban communities as services try and stay ahead of the feverish growth of resource towns, and housing prices skyrocket—witness the average cost of a home in Fort McMurray (Wood Buffalo) is now a half a million dollars.
This year, for the third year in a row, Ottawa takes top honours with a score of 74 points out of a possible 105. Perhaps most notable however, are the number of Western cities that shot up this year’s list thanks to strong economic growth and low unemployment. Regina and Halifax catapulted up more than 15 spots each to rank 4th and 5th respectively. Similarly, Red Deer, jumped from 96th to 9th on our list.
Take a close look at the data and you’ll find the top-rated cities aren’t perfect or even close to it any category. They are however above average in most categories, resulting in an overall high standard of living.
This year’s list has been expanded from previous years to include 190 cities and towns with populations over 10,000. To compile our list we have taken municipal data and ranked the cities in 22 categories and then given all the cities an overall ranking. For a full explanation on how we crunched the numbers, check out our methodology.
Also new this year are three additional lists, Best Places to Retire, Best Places to Raise Kids and Best Places for Jobs.
We’ve highlighted what we think are the most interesting facts and figures to come out of this year’s data in a series of maps, articles, galleries and interactives for you but the possibilities for the curious mind are endless. Don’t let us stop you from diving right in.
Canada’s Ideal City
Wondering what our ideal city would look like? Then take a gander at this interactive utopia, which lets you mouse over various structures and visual cues to see just what the most livable city in Canada might look like.
Galleries
Canada’s 35 Best Places to Live
We’ve crunched the numbers on 190 Canadian cities to find out which places are the most livable.
Canada’s Worst Places to Live
Our rankings were not kind to every city. See which cities placed last in each of our major categories, as well as Canada’s worst overall city.
Canada’s Best Places for Jobs
These 10 cities have the most prosperous economies and best job prospects in the country.
Best Places to Raise Kids
MoneySense ranks Canada’s biggest cities and towns in 10 categories to find out which are the most family-friendly.
Top 25 Best Places to Live Map
Canada’s 25 top places to live 2012 include communities from coast to coast. Use the screen controls on the left side of the map to move around the country and zoom in on the featured cities. Click on each location to see that city’s rating in different categories and why it’s a great place to settle.
To see the complete list broken down by subcategory, download the full spreadsheet.
moneysense.ca, 20/03/12
Where is the best place to live..??? Need to get out of Newfoundland and don't want to go back to Edmonton… HELP!!
Wow…..having been to every major city in Canada and most of the minor ones, I can tell you this much. As a self employed medical professional, I can make a tidy living wherever I choose to live.
The fact that you overlooked the Southern Interior of BC makes me wonder what you were thinking. Kamloops, Kelowna, Vernon, Penticton are all great towns and I would live in any one of them. I would choose them over anywhere else in Canada and I have a lot of professional friends who agree with me.
The fact that Winnipeg, the murder capital of Canada beats out Penticton and Kelowna and for that matter the whole Okanagan Valley on this list is absurd! I totally agree with you Rationalwest (except Kamloops lol), best place in Canada is definitely the Okanagan hands down.
HOT DRY DESERT weather (+40) in summer, tons of sunshine (more than Hawaii), snow in winter but not too much, beautiful lakes, beautiful people, CLEAN, nothing like it…
I don't see how the ranking of crimes is different for "best places to live" versus "best places to retire"… both seem to have a weight of 5. Eg. Aurora for best place to live is #7 for crime; Aurora for best place to retire is #144 for crime. What is the methodology difference? Thanks.
The weather rating is obviously biased by those living in Southwestern Ontario as that's where the editors are. The weather is milder there than in other locations in Canada but in the winter the tradeoff for mild weather is shades of brown and gray and in the summer it's smog days. I'll take a cold bright prairie winter day over a dreary Ontario winter day anytime. I also appreciate being able to breathe the air outside in the summer. When choosing to move from southwestern Ontario, weather, traffic, and air quality weighed heavily.
Aren't your winters white? is that better than brown and grey? i think of England and brown and grey, I've never experienced brown and grey in the GTA in the last 17 years, just white when it happens.
I just go though the blog. It's really awesome. Thank you for sharing.
I've been in Burlington for approx 6 months. I moved from Toronto and I clearly see and feel the difference in quality of life. I have visited most of the places within GTA before, and I deeply understand why Burlington is considered one of the best place to live. Not only in Canada I can assure. Proud to live in this lovely city. Further, I will not be surprised seeing this city at the top #1.
Is it just me or are others growing tired of the "Best Places to Live" articles? Every year is too much for me. The series seem to elicit nothing but criticism from readers and, let's face, i't's probably useless information for the majority of readers who live where they do for their job and they're not likely to uproot themselves and their families because of some quantitative exercise.
I've been a subscriber to MoneySense since the very beginning, and I give subscriptions to friends and families; but I want to learn something new in every issue. To that end I appreciated three of the five feature articles in the April issue so thanks for keeping things interesting…but maybe we could give the Best Place article a rest for a couple years.
It's not just you. I'm tired too. I live in Kingston and I can't begin to tell you that aside from the Waterfront I have nothing towards this city but animosity. This city would rather see innocents in jail then possible criminals. Just like the u.s. I was born here. I pray I don't die here. O.K you can't go in to stores in this city unless it's walmart, or zellers, or toys r us without possibly accusations of shop lifting. Or other possibly theft activities. Tell me how accusing your fellow citizen of a crime, or possible crime makes a city look good? Yes I am speakiing from experience.
I've shopped in Kingston, and never had this look or experience. Matters how you look, if you carry large bags, or if you huddle too close to merchandise. Shopkeepers don't factor in to the rating of a city. Actual crime, job rate, weather, etc… matter. Surely an immigrant in one of the top all white cities, is going to feel isolated , even if never accused of shoplifting. How you feel, doesn't form part of a measurable statistic.
No , not growing tired at all, because mayors need to know what they're doing wrong. A city is a corporation, it matters that some cities do better than others, it means someone is doing their job. If anyone is thinking of moving, better to consult this list, than regret it later, life is not only about the where the job is, if you have to run from guns getting to your car. Living in Toronto, means sitting in traffic 2 hours each way and listening to who got shot, every night. Now that I'm ready to move, and my mom is going to retire, it matters like crazy. A lot of retirees want to know. I search these stats out regularly and i'm not a subscriber. Gets mayors to be competitive and wake up.
Ok, now the best kept secret in Canada, but just don`t tell. Wawa, Ontario and along the coast of Lake Superior is simply (for the outdoorsperson esp), a `paradise`. The best drinking water in Canada, wolves, bears and cougars at your door *at least where we live, scared? and a peaceful nature filled existence like no other. Extremely friendly people, neighbours who clean your driveway to surprise you, (and there is snow like i have never seen) fish fries at the legion on a regular basis, (fresh whitefish yesterday!) curling club, lovely golf club, no traffic, no crime, and yes, we have a Timmies too! Retiring and moving from St.Thomas/London may have been the best decision of my life. Oh, did i mention it is considered to be the `canoeing capital of the world`? That too. The prospector is on order! True story! And we love it.
I've been leaving in London for 10 years and cannot imagine leaving somewhere else
Ottawa – crappy weather, 6 months of winter, so much salt on the roads that your car turns white most of the winter, heavily crowed freeway, center of city shuts down at night, cant get a job if you don't speak french, and rude people on the streets – paradise!
Wah! Wah! Quit cryin’ and make good use of the bike paths in summer, the skating in winter, and stop making up stuff about salt on the roads and lack of English- speaking jobs.
funny how this website is called MONEY SENSE, and not SUNNY CITIES dot com. MONEY-wise it is better to live in Ottawa, than the other cities. But if you're not interesting in good jobs, low pollution, low crime and quality of life, then you can many other cities that are "better" than Ottawa.
As long as you live in a place that gets lots of snow, cars rust quickly (and therefore require early replacement), houses are cheap (perhaps due to low demand?) and population growth is minimal – you'll take a win in several categories…
LANGLEY CITY AND TOWNSHIP