You Should Live in One of These 25 Canadian Cities if You Want a Good Life

Ranking the “best” cities in Canada is about as futile as anything, but it’s always a fun exercise to see what big data suggests we do with our lives.

MoneySense recently released its list of Canada’s 25 best cities, using data-driven analysis to evaluate 415 cities across the country and rank how they measure up in 10 categories: Wealth and economy, affordability, population growth, taxes, commute, crime, weather, access to health care, amenities and culture.

“There are lots of intangible qualities that make a city a great place to live that can’t be measured,” reads an overview of the exercise. “But we believe there are plenty of important characteristics that can be captured by hard data. A liveable city should be prosperous, but affordable. Safe, yet easy to get around. And it should have the type of weather that draws you outdoors.”

Ok, enough about all that. Here are top 25 best cities in Canada to live in 2018:

  1. 1. Oakville, ON
  2. 2. Ottawa, ON
  3. 3. Russell, ON
  4. 4. Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, QC
  5. 5. Lacombe, AB
  6. 6. Milton, ON
  7. 7. Canmore, AB
  8. 8. Westmount, QC
  9. 9. Saint-Lambert, QC
  10. 10. Halton Hills, ON
  11. 11. Camrose, AB
  12. 12. Red Deer, AB
  13. 13. Mont-Royal, QC
  14. 14. Saugeen Shores, ON
  15. 15. Fort St. John, BC
  16. 16. Toronto, ON
  17. 17. Lévis, QC
  18. 18. King, ON
  19. 19. St. Albert, AB
  20. 20. Whistler, BC
  21. 21. The Nation, ON
  22. 22. Bonnyville (District No. 87), AB
  23. 23. Newmarket, ON
  24. 24. New Tecumseth, ON
  25. 25. Whitby, ON

Basically, what you’re gonna want to do, is live in the Greater Toronto Area. Now, about Oakville: “Oakville residents enjoy access to Toronto’s strong job market while maintaining the benefits of a smaller suburb,” reads MoneySense’s review. Oakville jumped 14 spots from its perch last year to beat two-time defending champ Ottawa.

Toronto is the highest-ranked major city at 16, followed by Calgary at 30. Vancouver managed to rank 88th (probably due to a 0 score for weather), while Montreal dwells at the 241 spot.

Here’s a provincial breakdown of the candidates:

So much for Moncton, eh.