For the fifth-straight year, Vancouver has been named the best city in the world to live.
And two other Canadian centres — Toronto and Calgary — cracked the top 10 coming in at fifth and fourth respectively. The annual survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit, was released Monday.
Vancouver topped the list of the world's most livable cities
The survey is based on 30 factors across five broad categories: stability, health care, culture and environment, education and infrastructure. Each factor was rated as accepted, tolerable, uncomfortable, undesirable or intolerable in a system that “allows for direct comparison between locations,” according to the report.
“Vancouver remains at the top of the ranking, a position that can only have been cemented by the successful hosting of the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, which provided a boost to the infrastructure and culture and environment categories,” the survey’s authors wrote in their summary.
Housing affordability has concerned many young residents in these cities — a factor that “obviously” wasn’t considered in the survey. These cities are all expensive to rent in relative to other Canadian cities.
Renting in Toronto has the highest rent in Canada. Apartments for rent in Toronto averaged $1,937 for a two bedroom apartment, up three per cent from the average of $1,873 recorded in 2009.
Calgary rent was second at $1,065 according to Rent Spot stats for a two bedroom Calgary apartment. Vancouver rent averages $947 for a two bedroom apartment in 2010 on Rent Spot. Apartments for rent in Vancouver are the most affordable of the three cities.
