The Best Canadian Cities to Live and Work

For people who want to move to Canada, one of the most important decisions to make is where to live in their new country. Therefore, a new report released in September 2014 by the Conference Board of Canada may provide some helpful insights on the best cities to live and work in Canada. The Conference Board of Canada ranked 50 Canadian cities on such key factors as education, environment, health, housing, innovation and society and in its 2014 City Magnets report, considered Calgary, Ottawa, Richmond Hill, St. John’s, Vancouver and Waterloo among the top cities to live and work in Canada. All six of these highly-rated Canadian cities received an overall excellent grade of “A” which means they had a “strong magnetic pull” that attracted new residents.  By comparison, Markham, Mississauga and Toronto received a “B” grade, meaning they are also “very good” places to live in Canada.

Each of the top six Canadian cities had particular strengths that made them attractive to foreign nationals who move to Canada. For example, the City Magnets report says that “Waterloo shines as one of the top cities for migrants, thanks to its well-earned reputation for innovation and education. The city ranked first in education, second in innovation, and third in the economy category.”  The study states that Vancouver is also “one of the key destinations” for people who move to Canada, due in large part to its “overall high quality of life.”  The Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill is the third most multicultural Canadian city, with 59.3% of its residents foreign-born, plus it “boasts the highest number of graduates in engineering, science and math per capita.” It is not surprising, therefore, that Richmond Hill was highly rated for “education, innovation and society.”  The city of St. John’s in Newfoundland & Labrador received high marks for the quality healthcare available to its residents, while Canada’s capital city of Ottawa was noted for its economy, education, innovation and society. Calgary was “the only city to rank first in two categories: economy and innovation.”

Other recent studies have also stated that Canadian cities are great places to live. For example, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) ranked Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary among the top 10 “most livable” cities in the world in August 2014. One of the major reasons that hundreds of thousands of people from around the globe move to Canada each year is because it offers its 35 million residents one of the highest standards of living on Earth. If you would also like to live and work in Canada and want to find out if you are eligible to apply for Canadian immigration, click here!