DISCLAIMER: This is a chart that I built to make a personal decision for me, and not a general read on these cities.
As soon-to-be immigrants in Canada, picking a city to settle in has been quite the task, so I’ve done some research to score cities that we would consider (and more frankly) based on factors that are important to us.
Indices were built for each fator, then Z score was used to calculate the total for each one of the two categories. I standardized it then to a range of [-2,2] to make sure it fits in 4 easy to read quadrants, so some of the differences might be exagerated.
Some cities were too similar (Brampton which is close to Missisauga) or with simply not enough data in all the categories. Note that some of the factors are pretty much personal (Flight prices to and from Montreal for instance, as it’s the only city with a direct flight to and from our country of origin).
Main takeaways for me:
* The only thing that would make us move to BC is the weather, other than that, the quality of life even in smaller cities like Nanaimo, Abbotsford, etc. is just not worth the high cost of living. * GTA obviously stands out, and while quality is great there, the cost difference vs other cities is just too high. * It was reassuring to see great candidates with comparable quality of life to the big ones, such as Calgary, Ottawa and Edmonton. Kingston was a wildcard, as it seems the best option for a city somewhere between GTA and Montreal/Ottawa. Others just had a very low quality of living (Cornwall, Brockville, etc.) or not enough data (Ajax, Oshawa). * Quebec is a great place to live, but unfortunately not for us as we’re looking for an English-speaking city (and we can’t settle in Quebec as PRs, at least not yet). * The most important thing that this chart helped me do personally is gauge how much I would be giving up if I consider cities such as Winnipeg/Saskatoon/Regina/St John’s which were pretty much on my radar, vs other “safer” options like Ottawa or Edmonton. This made me lean towards higher quality cities, especially as the difference in cost of living doesn’t seem to be that big, especially compared to Edmonton. * To the last point, Edmonton just seems like the best of both worlds at the moment. The question is how long will cost of living remain reasonable there, I guess time will tell!
Sources: Numbeo, Canadian Real Estate Association and ChatGPT for subjective aspects. Education information was hard to come by, but Five Year High-School graduation rate or similar was used whenever available.
All data consolidated and chart built in Google Sheets/Slides, I can share the source file if anyone is interested in running the same calculation for themselves and playing with the weights.
Eager to hear any improvement ideas!
I don’t think it’s a great secret that the only good places to live in Canada are in BC and Ontario.
Does it make sense to include “Income” in QOL given you have an axis dedicated to cost of living and you’re presumably judging this against your own income? Or is there an assumption that higher income = more amenities or something similar?
Really surprised to see Burlington more expensive than Oakville
Either Vancouver or Montréal
Interesting data and representation. Just wondering how the weighting of each factor was determined?
I see why Alberta is so popular nowadays
If it’s important to you, you should take into account how good public transit and how walkable these places are – doesn’t look like that’s captured here at all. Places like Oakville, Mississauga, Burlington etc are car infested suburbs for the most part with little civic life.
![[OC] Cost and quality of life in select Canadian cities](https://www.europesays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/meb00ncwk9kd1-1920x1024.png)
9 comments
Why flight prices to Montreal?
DISCLAIMER: This is a chart that I built to make a personal decision for me, and not a general read on these cities.
As soon-to-be immigrants in Canada, picking a city to settle in has been quite the task, so I’ve done some research to score cities that we would consider (and more frankly) based on factors that are important to us.
Indices were built for each fator, then Z score was used to calculate the total for each one of the two categories. I standardized it then to a range of [-2,2] to make sure it fits in 4 easy to read quadrants, so some of the differences might be exagerated.
Some cities were too similar (Brampton which is close to Missisauga) or with simply not enough data in all the categories. Note that some of the factors are pretty much personal (Flight prices to and from Montreal for instance, as it’s the only city with a direct flight to and from our country of origin).
Main takeaways for me:
* The only thing that would make us move to BC is the weather, other than that, the quality of life even in smaller cities like Nanaimo, Abbotsford, etc. is just not worth the high cost of living.
* GTA obviously stands out, and while quality is great there, the cost difference vs other cities is just too high.
* It was reassuring to see great candidates with comparable quality of life to the big ones, such as Calgary, Ottawa and Edmonton. Kingston was a wildcard, as it seems the best option for a city somewhere between GTA and Montreal/Ottawa. Others just had a very low quality of living (Cornwall, Brockville, etc.) or not enough data (Ajax, Oshawa).
* Quebec is a great place to live, but unfortunately not for us as we’re looking for an English-speaking city (and we can’t settle in Quebec as PRs, at least not yet).
* The most important thing that this chart helped me do personally is gauge how much I would be giving up if I consider cities such as Winnipeg/Saskatoon/Regina/St John’s which were pretty much on my radar, vs other “safer” options like Ottawa or Edmonton. This made me lean towards higher quality cities, especially as the difference in cost of living doesn’t seem to be that big, especially compared to Edmonton.
* To the last point, Edmonton just seems like the best of both worlds at the moment. The question is how long will cost of living remain reasonable there, I guess time will tell!
Sources: Numbeo, Canadian Real Estate Association and ChatGPT for subjective aspects. Education information was hard to come by, but Five Year High-School graduation rate or similar was used whenever available.
All data consolidated and chart built in Google Sheets/Slides, I can share the source file if anyone is interested in running the same calculation for themselves and playing with the weights.
Eager to hear any improvement ideas!
I don’t think it’s a great secret that the only good places to live in Canada are in BC and Ontario.
Does it make sense to include “Income” in QOL given you have an axis dedicated to cost of living and you’re presumably judging this against your own income? Or is there an assumption that higher income = more amenities or something similar?
Really surprised to see Burlington more expensive than Oakville
Either Vancouver or Montréal
Interesting data and representation. Just wondering how the weighting of each factor was determined?
I see why Alberta is so popular nowadays
If it’s important to you, you should take into account how good public transit and how walkable these places are – doesn’t look like that’s captured here at all. Places like Oakville, Mississauga, Burlington etc are car infested suburbs for the most part with little civic life.