Sarnia, Ontario
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Ontario · Civic arena

Sarnia

Sarnia drinking water hardness is 162 mg/L on OpenStats, plus City Score rankings and local readings.

Civic arena · hometown HUD

Sarnia

Census_agglomeration98k pop
53XP
#126

#126 of 343

53% City Score XP

DroppingSurface
City Score XP

6/8 pillars on the board

53%#126

Decade trail

Sarnia packs 6 of eight open-data pillars into its composite standing. Tap a rival below to see how the hometown stacks up head-to-head.

Sarnia drinking water

Regional estimate from nearest municipal sample

Hardness, pH, and lead from municipal reports on the OpenStats water atlas. This page uses a regional estimate — open the water atlas for method notes.

Hardness
162 mg/L
hard
pH
8
Lead
0.2 μg/L

Full Sarnia water quality report →City Score rankingsCompare cities · vs Amherstburg · vs BrantfordHardness guide

Watershed to tap · system map

How Sarnia's water works

Source, treatment, and distribution for Sarnia from municipal and provincial water records. Open the animated map for the full watershed-to-tap diagram — no nested topic navigation here.

Local numbers for Sarnia

Permits, tax, internet, radon, hazards, drinking water, and sports rankings where a CHL hometown applies.

How Sarnia scores

Dropping−71

Sarnia sits at City Score rank #126 with a standing of 53%, from 6 of 8 open-data pillars (tax, construction, connectivity, indoor air, water, seismic hazard, growth, safety). Missing pillars score at median standing so thin coverage cannot inflate the rank. Dropping 71 places versus 2022 (#55 → #126).

Latest owned placements: indoor radon rank #189 of 327 at 95 Bq/m³ survey mean; residential mill rate rank #12 of 57 (16.67 mill rate). Full tables and method notes live on each study edition; atlas readings for the same slug open from the topic buttons.

Among Canadian cities on the hub, Sarnia carries a City Score standing of 53% (rank #126 of 343) with 6 of 8 pillars observed. That sits 0 points above the Ontario peer average across 123 ranked cities. Within Ontario, Sarnia ranks #64 of 123 on City Score.

The strongest signal in the current chart is seismic hazard (standing 85%, rank #290 of 343, raw score 0.029). The weakest observed pillar is property tax (standing 21%, rank #12 of 57).

Drinking-water hardness on the water atlas reads 162 mg/L as CaCO₃ for Sarnia. Compare that figure to the hardness pillar on the chart and to the national hardness guide on the hub.

#126
Arena rank (of 343)
53%
City Score
6
Pillars observed
Dropping−71
vs 2022
#55 → #126

Arena loadout

Topic XP bars

Arena rank #126 of 343

City Score

6/8 pillars · main XP bar

53%#126
Drinking water

Pillar avg · hardness #182

63%
Building permits

No placement

—
Internet

Rank #107

69%
Radon

Rank #189

58%
Hazards

Rank #290

85%
Property tax

Rank #12

21%

Sarnia pillar standing

Eight equal-weight City Score pillars, 2025 panel year.

TaxPermitsNetRadonWaterHazardsGrowthCrime

Source: OpenStats composite / study editions

City Score standing trend

Standing percentage by panel year (higher is better).

Years: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025

Source: OpenStats composite timeseries

Achievements

Dropping -71Surface water supply

Hometown notes

City profile

Older hometown notes stay on the desk archive (noindex) — this section shows recent highlights only.

Sarnia in brief

Sarnia sits in Southwestern Ontario where Lake Huron empties into the St. Clair River at the Canada-US border. Municipal economic pages lead with that geography, then talk multi-modal corridors and a cultural district that shares the map with industry. Locals still hear Chemical Valley in everyday shorthand, while Observer headlines keep Line 5 and Sarnia-Lambton files on the front burner. Point Edward holds the Blue Water Bridge footings next door, and the twin spans remain the postcard backdrop from the water. Lambton museum pages treat the bridge as the place to watch freighters and eat fries with both countries in view.

Canatara Park is the parks-system centrepiece: a 174-acre north-end stretch on Lake Huron with Canatara Park Beach, the Children's Animal Farm, Canada Day, and Christmas on the Farm. City releases note Blue Flag status for the beach and a live master-plan conversation about future investment. Down at Sarnia Bay, the Andrew S. Brandt Marina lines up more than 350 slips with views of the Blue Water Bridges. Christina Street carries City Hall and the invest-Sarnia desk.

The calendar mixes border-city work with local play. Captain Kidd Days still marks the summer run on the Observer front, and Lambton College shows up whenever research and new programs make news. Bio-based manufacturing and research sit in the municipal growth pitch beside the older industrial story. Trail alerts on the Suncor Energy Foundation Nature Way remind people that conservation work and plant geography share the same shoreline. On OpenStats City Score for 2025, Sarnia sits at rank 313 of 343. People who live here still introduce the place by the lake-to-river turn and the bridges before they argue about plants or pipelines.

Drawn from City of Sarnia - Invest Sarnia, City of Sarnia - Canatara Park, City of Sarnia - Sarnia Bay Marina, The Sarnia Observer, Lambton County Museums - Blue Water Bridge.

City Score over time

City Score from 2016–2025 across eight open-data pillars. Individual study placements are listed in the panels below.

0%25%50%75%100%2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
OpenStats City Score

Rankings for Sarnia

Each study below is its own ranking. Where a study has more than one edition for this city, the chart shows standing across those years only.

Safety · OpenStats

Crime severity not placed

Statistics Canada does not publish a police-service Crime Severity Index that OpenStats can match to Sarnia without copying a province, CMA, or another city. The safety pillar scores at median standing (50%) on City Score, the same rule used for other missing pillars.

Connectivity · OpenStats

OpenStats Broadband Download Speeds

OpenStats

Cities ranked by household-weighted maximum advertised download (Mbps) from ISED National Broadband Data hex ISP rows, with hex-to-city assignment by population-weighted gravity. The headline 2025 score is the dwelling-weighted mean of per-hex technology ceilings (fibre and cable at 1 Gbps, DSL lower). Household-weighted 50/10 availability (%) is stored on atlas rows as avail_5010_pct. Earlier panel years backcast along a national speed curve with city-specific fiber and availability paths.

10 editions · 2016–2025

#107
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 806.3

Composite · OpenStats

OpenStats City Score

OpenStats

Dimensional average of OpenStats open-data pillars for each panel year 2016-2025: tax, construction, connectivity, indoor air, water, seismic hazard, population growth, and crime severity. Each series is scored 0-1 within its edition; series in the same pillar are averaged, then all eight pillars are averaged with equal weight. Missing pillars score at median standing (0.5). Crime severity uses StatCan police-service CSI only (Tables 35-10-0026-01 and 35-10-0063-01); cities without a police-service match take median standing on the safety pillar. Growth uses StatCan CSD estimates; construction uses verified municipal building-permit value per resident (population field on each city record, 2021 Census vintage); mill rates and broadband use live rows plus documented year-varying estimates where needed. Radon, water, and PGA may be survey/model vintages carried forward and are flagged when static for more than two years. External commercial livability lists are never inputs.

10 editions · 2016–2025

#126
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 0.529

Water · OpenStats

OpenStats Drinking Water Hardness

OpenStats

Communities ranked by municipal drinking-water hardness (mg/L as CaCO₃). Hardness changes slowly; the atlas vintage is carried across panel years and flagged when static for more than two years.

10 editions · 2016–2025

#182
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 162

Health · OpenStats

OpenStats Highest Indoor Radon

OpenStats

Communities ranked by Health Canada survey mean indoor radon (Bq/m³). Rank 1 is the highest mean. Decade panel years without a new survey carry the CMA survey vintage forward; they are not annual retests.

10 editions · 2016–2025

#189
Latest · 2025 · of 327
Score 94.7

Growth · OpenStats

OpenStats Population Growth

OpenStats

Cities ranked by year-over-year population growth from Statistics Canada annual CSD estimates (Table 17-10-0155-01). Rank 1 is fastest growth. A few places without a clean CSD match use a provincial-path estimate anchored to seed population.

10 editions · 2016–2025

#248
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 0.004452370856301913

Property tax · OpenStats

OpenStats Residential Mill Rates

OpenStats

Municipalities ranked by residential mill rate (education levies are shown on property-tax pages but not added here). Rank 1 is the highest rate. Atlas seed and published municipal rows anchor the panel; off-panel tax years (e.g. 2026) carry across 2016–2025; remaining gaps follow provincial paths.

10 editions · 2016–2025

#12
Latest · 2025 · of 57
Score 16.67

Hazards · OpenStats

OpenStats Seismic Hazard (PGA)

OpenStats

Communities ranked by NRCan peak ground acceleration (higher = stronger shaking hazard). Rank 1 is highest PGA. The seismic model is multi-year; values are carried across the City Score panel and flagged as static until NRCan publishes a new generation.

10 editions · 2016–2025

#290
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 0.029

Worth knowing in Sarnia

Distinctive local notes and places, each linked to its source.

Places to see

Canatara Park

North-end Lake Huron park with beach, Children's Animal Farm, and long-running community events. City staff call it the centrepiece of the parks system.

Blue Water Bridge

Twin spans over the St. Clair River toward Port Huron, with Point Edward at the Canadian footing. Lambton museum pages treat it as the county's border landmark.

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