Are Canadian cities better than America’s?

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THE UNITED NATIONS awards no hardship pay to staff living in America or Canada. North American cities are among the best to live in anywhere in the world—a sentiment backed up by EIU, our sister company, and its liveable cities index, which helps employers to calculate such allowances. In such an attractive region, the tool serves another handy purpose: teasing out what separates the best from the merely good.

EIU’s global index judges 173 cities across five categories: stability, health care, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. In North America (which, by EIU’s methodology, excludes Mexico), all 26 cities have a liveability score of at least 80 out of 100. The exception, Saipan, is in the North Mariana Islands, a US commonwealth in the western Pacific. Those in Canada consistently shine, particularly Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto—the top three in the region and among the top ten in the world. Cities in the United States, meanwhile, have never hit the global top ten in the index’s 14-year history. Honolulu, tied with Montreal at fourth in North America (25th in the world), is America’s highest scorer this year. What explains the gap?

Size, in this case, matters. Canadian cities benefit from small populations: the biggest is Toronto, with little over 2.8m people; Vancouver has roughly 700,000. Similarly, none of America’s top-scoring cities—Honolulu, Atlanta (33rd in the world), Pittsburgh (34th), Seattle (36th), Washington, DC (38th) and Miami (tied for 39th)—are among the country’s ten biggest by population. Honolulu and Pittsburgh each have just about 300,000 people. (Lexington, Kentucky—the lowest-scoring North American city—is comparably sized, but received a relatively low education score.) New York, America’s biggest city with 8.5m people, scores well on amenities associated with thriving metropolises: good infrastructure, vibrant culture and a strong education system. But with more people come greater risks: its stability score is the lowest in North America (and strikingly tied with Moscow).

The stability category considers crime rates and threats of terrorism, civil unrest and military conflict. Across America crime spiked during the pandemic. In New York, shootings have since fallen significantly but felonies such as assault and auto theft remain stubbornly high. Canada’s stability score wobbled in 2022 as disruptive anti-vaccine protests swept through the country, occupying cities and blockading major streets. But those have since ended and, compared with America, crime rates and terrorism threats are much lower.

Finally, Canadian cities excel at delivering high-quality public health care. Their southern neighbours did see an improvement in that category, big enough to push up the region’s overall index score compared with a year earlier. EIU attributes this to the decline in covid-19 cases and the alleviation of pandemic-related stresses on health-care systems. Still, critical health indicators in America—such as life expectancy and maternal mortality—are far worse than Canada’s.

Liveability, of course, means something different to each city-dweller. New York’s frenetic bustle, Honolulu’s crescent beach, Montreal’s cobblestoned rues—do these map neatly onto an index? Perhaps not. But as for a city’s measurable qualities, it is useful to see where America can catch up.■