3 Canadian Cities Were Named The Most Livable In The World & No, Toronto Isn't Number One

The Global Liveability Index included three Canadian cities in its 2023 ranking of the most liveable cities in the world, and the results were actually pretty surprising.

In an upset victory, that feels similar to watching the Canucks or the Flames whip the Leafs, Vancouver secured the highest position in all of Canada, ranking fifth overall. Calgary followed in the seventh spot, while Toronto claimed the ninth position.

The index evaluates living conditions worldwide, assessing the best and worst locations. Every city is assigned a rating of relative comfort for "over 30 qualitative and quantitative factors," including stability, healthcare, culture, education and infrastructure. Each factor in a city is then rated as acceptable, tolerable, uncomfortable, undesirable or intolerable.

In calculating the overall score for each city, the Global Liveability Index considered the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly the stress and restrictions experienced by each city.

In this year's evaluation, Vancouver beat out the other Canadian cities thanks to its impressive ranking of 97.3 out of 100. The city smashed various categories, scoring 95 for stability, 100 for health care and education, 97.2 for culture and environment, and 96.4 for infrastructure.

Calgary and Toronto were hardly caught slacking, though, trailing closely behind their B.C. counterpart thanks to their respective scores of 96.8 and 96.5.

Calgary was the GOAT of stability, health care, education, and infrastructure this year, garnering perfect scores in each. However, its overall ranking was impacted heavily by its lacklustre achievements in culture and environment.

Toronto also scored high in stability, health care, and education, achieving a perfect 100 in each. Unlike Calgary, it also mustered up a solid score of 94.4 in culture and environment. Sadly, its bogus infrastructure score of 89.3 weighed down its overall ranking.

It's worth noting that all three cities demonstrated improvements in stability compared to where they were in 2022.

"A shift back toward normality after the COVID-19 pandemic and incremental improvements in livability made by many developing countries have been the biggest drivers of changes in EIU's global livability rankings," the report explained.

Here is the complete list of the top 10 cities:

1. Vienna, Austria

2. Copenhagen, Denmark

3. Melbourne, Australia

4. Sydney, Australia

5. Vancouver, Canada

6. Zurich, Switzerland

7. Calgary, Canada

8. Geneva, Switzerland

9. Toronto, Canada

10. Osaka, Japan; and Auckland, New Zealand (two-way-tie between the cities)