The Economist Intelligence Unit’s liveability survey is out and Calgary is ranked the fifth most liveable city in the world, behind Melbourne, Vienna, Vancouver and Toronto.
The survey ranks cities on relative comfort – from intolerable to acceptable – in more than 30 factors. Those factors are put into five categories including stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure, which were then given a score out of 100 with 100 being ideal.
Calgary’s overall score is 96.6. We scored 100 points in stability, healthcare and education. Our infrastructure got us a 96.4 with culture and environment lagging at 89.1.
If you are looking to move outside of Canada, you might want to consider Australia. Melbourne (1), Adelaide (tied for 5th), Sydney (7) and Perth (9) all made the top 10.
And, you might want to avoid the worst three cities, which are Damascus, Syria, Dhaka, Bangledesh and Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.
If you want to stay in Canada, Calgary might still be your best bet and we have unbiased opinions to back up our favouritism. Earlier this year, MoneySense ranked us the best place to live in Canada, with St. Albert, Alberta and Burlington, Ontario coming in second and third. Toronto came in 28th on that list, with Vancouver a distant 52. That survey looked at data on incomes, employment, price of housing, weather, crime rates, access to medical treatment as well as the number of people employed in arts and sports.
The Toronto Region Board of Trade also ranked us second for prosperity. They liked Paris and London better (those cities tied for first), but we won’t hold it against them.