Fernie, British Columbia
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British Columbia · Civic arena

Fernie

Fernie drinking water hardness is 199 mg/L on OpenStats, plus City Score rankings and local readings.

Civic arena · hometown HUD

Fernie

Arena rank #147 of 172 · 52% XP

RisingDirectGroundwater
City Score XP

7/8 pillars on the board

52%#147

Fernie packs 7 of eight open-data pillars into its composite standing. Tap a rival below to see how the hometown stacks up head-to-head.

Fernie drinking water

Direct municipal reading

Hardness, pH, and lead from municipal reports on the OpenStats water atlas.

Hardness
199 mg/L
very hard
pH
7.2
Lead
0.7 μg/L

Full Fernie water quality report →What hardness means

Watershed to tap · system map

How Fernie's water works

Open full map

Source, treatment, and distribution path from OpenStats water atlas supply research — not invented plant names. Hardness and grade labels reflect published readings.

Interactive Archify map · OpenStats water dataFull water atlas page →

Local numbers for Fernie

Drinking water first, then permits, tax, internet, radon, and hazards for Fernie.

How Fernie scores

Rising+87

Fernie sits at City Score rank #147 with a standing of 52%, from 7 of 8 open-data pillars (tax, construction, connectivity, indoor air, water, seismic hazard, growth, safety). Missing pillars score at median standing so thin coverage cannot inflate the rank. Rising 87 places versus 2022 (#234 → #147).

Latest owned placements: building permit value rank #225 of 343 (2025); indoor radon rank #251 of 343 at 99 Bq/m³ survey mean; residential mill rate rank #187 of 343 (9.79 mill rate). Full tables and method notes live on each study edition; atlas readings for the same slug open from the topic buttons.

#147
Arena rank (of 172)
52%
City Score
7
Pillars observed
Rising+87
vs 2022
#234 → #147

Arena loadout

Topic XP bars

Arena rank #147 of 172

City Score

7/8 pillars · main XP bar

52%#147
Drinking water

Rank #131

38%
Building permits

Rank #225

35%
Internet

Rank #43

88%
Radon

Rank #251

73%
Hazards

No placement

Property tax

Rank #187

55%

Achievements

Rising +87Direct municipal readingGroundwater supply

Hometown notes

Archive

Earlier years: 2026 · 2025 · 2024 · 2023

Fernie in brief

Fernie is only city-class municipality in Canada that is fully encircled by the Rocky Mountains. 1898 is the year locals still cite when the townsite got serious.

Decades of ordinary town-building followed: recreation centres, county fairs, and service jobs tied to the wider region. Festivals and street names carry pieces of that plotline into the present.

Agriculture, forestry, tourism, and public-sector jobs still mix on the local tax roll the way many British Columbia towns do. On OpenStats City Score, Fernie ranks 147 of 7. Municipal recreation, parks, trails, and utility pages remain the best live guide to how Fernie explains itself today.

Permits, mill rates, broadband, radon, hazards, and water quality may show measured values, regional estimates, or empty states until a verified source is linked. That is the same honest pattern OpenStats uses for smaller places already in the corpus, and it keeps Fernie comparable on the hometown board without inventing numbers. Seasonal recreation programming, winter maintenance, and summer festival calendars still fill the municipal news feed most years. Library branches, arena ice, and aquatics schedules are the practical anchors families check before planning a weekend in Fernie. Seasonal recreation programming, winter maintenance, and summer festival calendars still fill the municipal news feed most years. Library branches, arena ice, and aquatics schedules are the practical anchors families check before planning a weekend in Fernie.

Drawn from Municipality of Fernie, CBC British Columbia.

City Score over time

City Score from 2016–2025 across eight open-data pillars. Individual study placements are listed in the panels below.

0%25%50%75%100%2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
OpenStats City Score

Rankings for Fernie

Each study below is its own ranking. Where a study has more than one edition for this city, the chart shows standing across those years only.

Connectivity · OpenStats

OpenStats Broadband Download Speeds

OpenStats

Cities ranked by estimated best advertised download (Mbps). Anchored to the current ISED National Broadband Data vintage, then backcast along a national speed curve with city-specific fiber-arrival and 50/10 availability paths so relative ranks can change over the decade. Not a claim of audited historical hex maps for every year.

10 editions · 2016–2025

#43
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 652.3

Construction · OpenStats

OpenStats Building Permit Value

OpenStats

Cities ranked by calendar-year building permit value. Direct rows sum Statistics Canada Table 34-10-0292-01. Cities without a direct reading use population × provincial per-capita permit intensity (estimated), so every seed city has a year-varying construction signal.

10 editions · 2016–2025

#225
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 339291219

Composite · OpenStats

OpenStats City Score

OpenStats

Dimensional average of OpenStats open-data pillars for each panel year 2016–2025: tax, construction, connectivity, indoor air, water, seismic hazard, population growth, and crime severity. Each series is scored 0–1 within its edition; series in the same pillar are averaged, then all eight pillars are averaged with equal weight. Missing pillars score at median standing (0.5). Growth and CSI use StatCan annual tables; permits, mill rates, and broadband use live rows plus documented year-varying estimates where needed. Radon, water, and PGA may be survey/model vintages carried forward and are flagged when static for more than two years. External commercial livability lists are never inputs.

10 editions · 2016–2025

#147
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 0.522

Safety · OpenStats

OpenStats Crime Severity Index

OpenStats

Communities ranked by Statistics Canada Crime Severity Index (Table 35-10-0026-01). Rank 1 is highest CSI (worse). Values are CMA where a metro match exists, otherwise provincial CSI. Hometown pages label the grain.

10 editions · 2016–2025

#55
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 92.37

Water · OpenStats

OpenStats Drinking Water Hardness

OpenStats

Communities ranked by municipal drinking-water hardness (mg/L as CaCO₃). Hardness changes slowly; the atlas vintage is carried across panel years and flagged when static for more than two years.

10 editions · 2016–2025

#131
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 199

Health · OpenStats

OpenStats Highest Indoor Radon

OpenStats

Communities ranked by Health Canada survey mean indoor radon (Bq/m³). Rank 1 is the highest mean. Decade panel years without a new survey carry the CMA survey vintage forward; they are not annual retests.

10 editions · 2016–2025

#251
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 99

Growth · OpenStats

OpenStats Population Growth

OpenStats

Cities ranked by year-over-year population growth from Statistics Canada annual CSD estimates (Table 17-10-0155-01). Rank 1 is fastest growth. A few places without a clean CSD match use a provincial-path estimate anchored to seed population.

10 editions · 2016–2025

#67
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 0.022953659592897357

Property tax · OpenStats

OpenStats Residential Mill Rates

OpenStats

Municipalities ranked by residential mill rate. Rank 1 is the highest rate. Published municipal years are used when available; gaps are interpolated or follow the provincial median path so the tax pillar moves year to year for every city.

10 editions · 2016–2025

#187
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 9.785829205099411

Worth knowing in Fernie

Distinctive local notes and places, each linked to its source.

Places to see

Elk River

Elk River shapes how Fernie talks about geography, recreation, and seasonal flooding or drought planning.

Fernie downtown

Historic main street blocks, local shops, and civic buildings remain the walking-tour version of Fernie.

Follow Fernie by email

When Fernie moves in a ranking, posts new permit figures, or lands in a study, get a short note. A few sends a year, only when something changes.

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Related guides

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