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 the top 10 of its 2023 ranking of the most livable cities in the world.

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 to live in. 173 cities across the globe are assessed and assigned a rating of relative comfort for "over 30 qualitative and quantitative factors," across the categories of stability, health care, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. Each factor in a city is then rated as either acceptable, tolerable, uncomfortable, undesirable or intolerable.

In calculating the overall score for each city this year, 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 score of 97.3 out of 100. The city smashed various categories, scoring 95 for stability, 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.

All three Canadian cities in the ranking scored a perfect 100 in both health care and education, but Calgary was the GOAT of stability and infrastructure this year, garnering perfect scores in each as well. However, its overall ranking was impacted heavily by its lacklustre achievements in culture and environment.

Toronto also scored a perfect 100 in stability, but unlike Calgary, it 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, which the report credits to a bounce back from last year's anti-mandate protests.

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

Here is the complete list of the top 10 cities and their overall livability scores out of 100:

1. Vienna, Austria (98.4)
2. Copenhagen, Denmark (98.0)
3. Melbourne, Australia (97.7)
4. Sydney, Australia (97.4)
5. Vancouver, Canada (97.3)
6. Zurich, Switzerland (97.1)
7. Calgary, Canada & Geneva, Switzerland (two-way tie at 96.8)
9. Toronto, Canada (96.5)
10. Osaka, Japan & Auckland, New Zealand (two-way tie at 96.0)