A total of 105 points was up for grabs. Each category (below) was allotted a number of points depending on the importance of the category. For example, employment statistics are worth 10 points while sales taxes are worth 1 point. Some categories are further broken into subcategories. For example, the crime category is determined by statistics in the subcategories of violent crime, crime severity and total crime.
The top city in
each category received the maximum number of points, and the rest of the cities
received descending incremental points based on their ranking.
For example, in
the area of unemployment, Estevan, Sask. had the lowest unemployment rate in
the country (1.6%). It was ranked No. 1 in that category and received 10
points. The second-best city in the unemployment category, Wetaskiwin, Alta.,
received 9.95 points. The next city was Swift Current, Sask. with 9.89 points
and so on down to the 190th city (Bay Roberts, N.L. unemployment rate 16.8%),
which received 0.53 points.
Calculations for
some other categories follow a slightly different methodology. For example, in
the category of population growth, an annual rate of 7.9% was considered ideal.
Anything below or above that rate loses points and cities with a population
loss got zero. The same is true for the subcategory of precipitation, which
makes up part of the weather category. (The ideal number is 700 mm a year, with
anything above or below that losing points accordingly)
As well, 5 bonus
points have been added based on the percentage of people employed in arts,
culture, recreation and sports.
While a perfect
score in all categories would give a city 105 points, the top city this year,
Ottawa, only garnered 74.11 points. Our lowest ranking city, New Glasgow, N.S.,
scored 33.8 points.
A city’s points
are then ranked with all other cities to determine the best places to live
overall.
In our ranking out of 190 places to live, we ranked low (162) in affordable housing, low in possession of new cars (172), low in low crime rate(165). Interestingly we ranked relatively high in doctors per 1000 population at 17 and weather at 38. One must assume the number of doctors would include specialists which would skew the appearance of family doctor availability.
For the full report:
http://www.moneysense.ca/2012/03/20/canadas-best-places-to-live-methodology-2012/
http://www.moneysense.ca/2012/03/20/canadas-best-places-to-live-methodology-2012/
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