Three Canadian cities were included among the world’s most livable cities.

With two cities apiece, Australia and Switzerland, with Canada, were among the top ten most livable cities. The only other cities on the list outside of North America, Europe, and Australia-New Zealand were Osaka and Auckland, who tied for tenth place.

Vancouver

Vancouver fared well in this year’s liveability rankings, taking first place in Canada and placing fifth globally.

The city on the west coast had an overall liveability score of 97.3. The breakdown of these ratings reveals the strengths and weaknesses of the city.

Vancouver maintained its traditionally high ranking in the healthcare and education areas, scoring 100 on the EIU scale. In addition, the city received high marks for environment and culture (97.2), while stability (95) and infrastructure (96.4) saw very minor declines.

Calgary

Even though Calgary isn’t often considered one of Canada’s three major cities for immigrants (Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal), it continues to do remarkably well in liveability rankings, maintaining its top 10 position from the 2022 assessment with a score of 96.8.

The city received flawless scores of 100 for infrastructure, healthcare, education, and stability, but only a relatively low score of 87.3 for culture and environment, which decreased the city’s overall liveability score. These findings indicate that Calgary has the potential to be the most liveable city in Canada. It is the only city in the top 10 (aside from #1 Vienna) with four flawless 100 scores across all ranking categories.

Toronto

This year, the most populated city in Canada is ranked ninth with an overall liveability score of 96.5. Even though Calgary’s ranking is only 0.3 points away, the distribution of scores is very different.

Toronto performed quite well in three rating criteria: stability (100), healthcare (100), and education (100). In contrast, its performance in infrastructure (89.3) was significantly worse. The city received a 94.4 rating for environment and culture as well. Although the city’s lower ranking in the infrastructure category makes sense given Canada’s larger housing problems, the criteria includes additional information that can help explain why Vancouver, the most expensive city in Canada to rent in, and Calgary did not experience the same level of impact.

How do cities rank in relation to this research?

As was previously said, cities are graded according to the following factors: infrastructure, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and stability. The breakdowns of each criterion are as follows:

Stability was divided down even more into:

• frequency of minor offenses;
• frequency of violent offenses;
• a terrifying threat;
• danger of a military confrontation; and
• danger of violence or civil instability.

In terms of stability and safety measures, Canadian cities have generally scored rather strongly. Toronto and Calgary both receive perfect scores, while Vancouver comes in last with a 95.

• Additional healthcare measures were divided into:
• The accessibility of private medical treatment;
• the standard of private medical treatment;
• The accessibility of public health care;
• the standard of public health care;
• The accessibility of nonprescription medications; and
• general health markers.

Canada’s cities often do well in this regard due to the country’s usually high standard of healthcare, accessibility (even to temporary residents), and public healthcare that is available to all Canadians.

It is possible to further subdivide culture and environment into:

• rating of temperature and humidity;
• travelers’ discomfort with the weather;
• degree of dishonesty
• limitations based on social or religious beliefs;
• degree of restriction;
• sports accessibility;
• cultural accessibility;
• food and beverages; and
• products and services for consumers.

The only criterion where no city made the top 10 was culture and environment, which was the largest of all the criteria (in terms of characteristics examined). Vancouver and Toronto both received high scores (94.4 and 97.2, respectively), while Calgary, the only Albertan city to fall short of a perfect 100, received an 87.3.

• Metrics related to education were divided into:
• The accessibility of private education
• the standard of private schooling; and
• Indicators of public education.

Not only did Canada score highly in this category, but every city in the top ten achieved a perfect score of 100 in education.

Infrastructure metrics can be classified as follows:

• the state of the road system;
• the standard of public transportation;
• the state of the foreign connections;
• The accessibility of high-quality homes;
• the standard of energy supply;
• the quality of the water supply; and
• Telecommunications quality.

The most controversial rating (perhaps because it includes “availability of good housing”), given how differently Canada’s top three cities’ infrastructures perform. Although Vancouver had a great score of 96.4 and Alberta had an amazing 100, Toronto had the worst score decline with an 89.3, which was a major factor in the city’s fall to ninth position this year.