Calgary has been named Canada’s top city to live in by MoneySense magazine, scooping the top spot from three-time winner Ottawa. The magazine rated 200 cities this year, with Burlington, Ont., winning top mid-sized city and St. Albert, Alberta, winning top small city.
Calgary earned the distinction through a ranking of 33 categories that include employment, housing prices, crime, weather and household income.
“Cow Town,” as it is affectionately nicknamed for its western culture roots, has been climbing the rankings in large part due to rising incomes resulting from the boom in the energy sector.
“Calgary’s climb to the top of Best Places to Live highlights how well the West did overall in the rankings,” said Jonathan Chevreau, MoneySense Editor.
After Calgary, the top five big cities were Ottawa, then Edmonton, London, and Winnipeg.
Toronto, which ranked 47th last year, jumped to 28th this year, largely due to the city’s 5.27 percent population growth. Fredericton, N.B., plummeted from 7th to 78th because of falling incomes and higher home prices. Kelowna, B.C. also climbed in the ranks, from 144th to 76th, due largely to falling unemployment.
MoneySense uses a comprehensive data-driven analysis to come up with its rankings, looking at 200 plus cities that have populations over 10,000.
