City Score 2025 — Canadian City Rankings

OpenStats

Theme: composite
Cadence: annual
Geography unit: csd
How we publish: Full OpenStats table

How the City Score works

Each placement is scored from 0 to 1 inside its edition. When rank 1 means best, first place scores near 100%. When rank 1 means worst (for example highest radon or hardest water), that ordering is flipped so a healthier result still scores higher. Series in the same pillar (for example water hardness and lead) are averaged first. A city's OpenStats City Score is then the equal-weight mean across all eight pillars: tax, construction, connectivity, indoor air, water, seismic hazard, population growth, and crime severity. Missing pillars score at median standing (50%) so thin coverage cannot inflate the rank. Cities are ordered by that score. Commercial livability lists are never inputs.

Year panels from 2016 through 2025 use live atlas rows when a pillar publishes for that year. Permits, mill rates, and broadband may use documented estimates so hometown charts can move across the decade when a direct municipal reading is missing. Survey or model vintages for radon, water hardness, water lead, and seismic PGA may be carried forward; those carries are flagged when static for more than two years. Carried radon values are Health Canada survey vintages held constant — they are not newly measured annual city tests. Full ingest and tier rules sit on the methodology page.

Pillars measure different things. Use the City Score as a summary signal, then open the individual studies and topic pages for decisions about a specific home or project.

Current leaders

#	City	Province	Standing	Pillars
1	Barrie	Ontario	70%	8
2	Oakville	Ontario	69%	7
3	Markham	Ontario	68%	7
4	Niagara Falls	Ontario	68%	6
5	Pickering	Ontario	67%	5
6	Burnaby	British Columbia	67%	7
7	Ottawa	Ontario	66%	7
8	Bradford West Gwillimbury	Ontario	66%	5
9	Langford	British Columbia	66%	6
10	Wasaga Beach	Ontario	65%	6
11	Colwood	British Columbia	65%	6
12	Hamilton	Ontario	64%	8
13	New Tecumseth	Ontario	64%	5
14	Vaughan	Ontario	64%	6
15	Orangeville	Ontario	64%	5
16	Innisfil	Ontario	63%	5
17	Winkler	Manitoba	62%	5
18	East Gwillimbury	Ontario	62%	5
19	Beaumont	Alberta	62%	5
20	Blackfalds	Alberta	62%	5
21	Essa	Ontario	62%	6
22	Niverville	Manitoba	62%	5
23	Toronto	Ontario	62%	8
24	Tillsonburg	Ontario	62%	6
25	Cowansville	Quebec	61%	5

City Score 2025 — Canadian city rankings

How the City Score works

Current leaders

Editions