3 Canadian cities make top-10 most livable in the world

Canadians often say they live inone of the best countries in the world. And, according to a recent survey, we’re not the only ones who think so.

In the Global Livability Index 2018, an annual report by The Economist Intelligence Unit (The EIU), three Canadian cities – Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto – ranked among the top 10 most livable cities in the world. Calgary earned fourth place, followed by Vancouver in sixth and Toronto (tied with Tokyo) in seventh.

The rest of the top 10 is made up of three Australian cities, two European ones and two from Japan (including Tokyo).

MOST LIVABLE CITIES 2018:

1. Vienna, Austria

2. Melbourne, Australia

3. Osaka, Japan

4. Calgary, Canada

5. Sydney, Australia

6. Vancouver, Canada

7. (tie) Toronto, Canada

7. (tie) Tokyo, Japan

9. Copenhagen, Denmark

10. Adelaide, Australia

How the ranking works

To determine these rankings, The EIU surveyed 140 cities around the world and measured five categories: Stability, health care, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

“Across the survey a mixture of quantitative and qualitative data are used, which are combined to give an overall livability rating,” explains Roxana Slavcheva, author of the Livability Index. “Individual indicators are scored as acceptable, tolerable, uncomfortable, undesirable or intolerable. These are then weighted to produce an overall rating, where 100 means livability in a city is ideal and one means it is intolerable.” Each city’s rating depends upon more than 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across those five categories.

Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto

Robert Wood, principal economist at The EIU, says all three Canadian cities did well in terms of the 30 factors measured across the five categories. “The only indicator where all three trip up is livability of the weather, which many can relate to. This is because we are comparing cities across the globe and I’m thinking ofplaces in the Mediterranean!” he shares. “This year Calgary just pulls ahead of Vancouver and Toronto partly because it scores better in terms of affordability of quality housing, partly explained by the house price boom in Vancouver and Toronto.”

2017 comparison

Last year, Vancouver ranked third, Toronto fourth and Calgary tied with Adelaide, Australia, for fifth.

“The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Livability survey quantifies the challenges a city presents [in] daily life, allowing direct comparison between locations,” Slavcheva explains. The rankings are based on how cities compare to one another, so a drop in ranking does not necessarily mean that a city’s livability score has changed.

In fact, livability in all cities surveyed increased by 0.9 per cent in the past year, with improvements seen in all five categories – in particular stability, which increased by 2.5 per cent.

Trends in top-ranking cities

Some things that many of the top-ranking cities have in common: Many of these are mid-sized cities in wealthier countries and with a comparably low population density, allowing these communities to offer recreational opportunities without compromising the quality of their infrastructure or introducing a higher crime rate.

Referring to the 2017 World Bank statistics, the Global Livability Index 2018 overview points out that the population densities in Canada and Australia, for example, vary between 3.2 and four people per square kilometre, compared to 35.6 in the U.S. or a global land average of 58.

“Large, vibrant metropolises such as London and New York of course offer a rich breadth of entertainment options and cultural amenities. However, they continue to struggle with overstretched infrastructure, congestion and higher crime rates,” Slavcheva points out. “The aim of the Global Livability ranking is to allow for cities to compare what they are doing well and which areas need improvement. No city scores perfectly, although there is a lot that can be learned from those that are topping the different categories in the index. The important thing for cities is to keep track of progress and measure the impact of each policy, each new infrastructure project and each intervention on citizens’ well-being.”

Related reading

Ontario rules Top 10 Canadian cities for investing

Top 10 safest cities in Canada