10 Best Large Cities to Live in Canada 2014

As a Toronto call centre, we love reading about the many ways our city and country compare globally and we’ve explored this is posts like best country to live, smartest countries, the happiest countries, the  most peaceful countries, the friendliest countries, the most charitable countries, the best countries for quality of life, the best countries for business, the top countries for life expectancy, the best countries for working women, the best country for child well-being, the best countries from social progress, the best countries for higher education, the most popular countries, the least corrupt countries, the countries with the best reputation, the best countries for ease of doing business, the best countries for starting a business, the best country for business, the best country for customer satisfaction, the most gay positive country, the best countries with the most competitive economies, the best countries for entrepreneurship, the most sustainable countries, the best countries to grow old, the best country brand, the most youthful cities, the best cities to live for opportunity, the best countries for business, the most sustainable countries, the most charitable countries, the most prosperous countries, the countries with the highest minimum wage, the safest countries and the best cities to live in Canada. Now we’re looking inward at the 10 best large cities to live in Canada from MoneySense’s Best Places to Live report. We have already featured this report in our best places for new immigrants in Canada post.

MoneySense, “Canada’s leading personal finance magazine and leading personal finance website” published this list and defined a large-sized city as one having a population of more than 400,000 citizens. To achieve these rankings they looked at “each community across 34 separate categories.” The main category groupings included commuting, weather, demographics, wealth, housing, crime, taxation, amenities, health care and culture. According to this ranking, the 10 best large cities to live in Canada are:

1. Calgary, Alberta – Overall 2014 ranking: 2nd
2. Ottawa, Ontario – Overall 2014 ranking: 4th
3. Edmonton, Alberta – Overall 2014 ranking: 8th
4. Québec, Québec – Overall 2014 ranking: 10th
5. Winnipeg, Manitoba – Overall 2014 ranking: 19th
6. Halifax, Nova Scotia – Overall 2014 ranking: 26th
7. Toronto, Ontario – Overall 2014 ranking: 32nd
8. Vancouver, British Columbia – Overall 2014 ranking: 39th
9. London, Ontario – Overall 2014 ranking: 41th
10. Laval, Québec – Overall 2014 ranking: 69th

The report found that two-thirds of Canada’s large cities experienced a drop between the 2013 and 2014 overall rankings and “the culprit behind these downturns can be largely summed up in a single word: unemployment. Rates in these centres are hovering between 8% and 10%.” This is also coupled with increasingly high housing costs which are making it harder for families who’s income is stagnate or has gone down to pay off mortgages and manage to save for the future.

It should be noted that Vancouver was one of the few cities to move up from last year due to the culture category as that has grown exponentially and employs many people.

Overall it seems that while many people still enjoy living in big cities, when it comes to the preferred places to live, smaller communities are winning out this year. Congrats to Toronto for making the top 10.

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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including inbound telephone fundraising, outbound telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery fundraising services, donation processing and receipting and direct mail fundraising services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all our business decisions  and advancing the missions of the nonprofits we proudly serve.