Fort St. John, British Columbia
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British Columbia · Civic arena

Fort St. John

Fort St. John drinking water hardness is 233 mg/L on OpenStats, plus City Score rankings and local readings.

Civic arena · hometown HUD

Fort St. John

Census_agglomeration29k pop
53XP
#139

#139 of 343

53% City Score XP

RisingDirectSurface
City Score XP

7/8 pillars on the board

53%#139

Decade trail

Fort St. John 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.

Fort St. John drinking water

Direct municipal reading

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

Hardness
233 mg/L
very hard
pH
8.1
Lead
0.1 μg/L

Full Fort St. John water quality report →City Score rankingsCompare cities · vs Merritt · vs ChilliwackHardness guide

Watershed to tap · system map

How Fort St. John's water works

Open full map

Source, treatment, and distribution for Fort St. John from municipal and provincial water records. Hardness and grade are published readings.

Local numbers for Fort St. John

Drinking water first, then permits, tax, internet, radon, and hazards for Fort St. John.

How Fort St. John scores

Rising+75

Fort St. John sits at City Score rank #139 with a standing of 53%, 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 75 places versus 2022 (#214 → #139).

Latest owned placements: building permit value rank #210 of 343 (2025); indoor radon rank #278 of 343 at 83 Bq/m³ survey mean; residential mill rate rank #186 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.

#139
Arena rank (of 343)
53%
City Score
7
Pillars observed
Rising+75
vs 2022
#214 → #139

Arena loadout

Topic XP bars

Arena rank #139 of 343

City Score

7/8 pillars · main XP bar

53%#139
Drinking water

Rank #71

21%
Building permits

Rank #210

39%
Internet

Rank #178

48%
Radon

Rank #278

81%
Hazards

No placement

Property tax

Rank #186

54%

Achievements

Rising +75Direct municipal readingSurface water supply

Hometown notes

Archive

Earlier years: 2026 · 2025 · 2024 · 2023

Fort St. John in brief

Fort St. John still introduces itself as the energetic city. Energetic City is the local newsroom brand, FSJ is the shorthand in headlines, and visitor copy leans on the same word when it talks about tournaments, trail nights, and shift-town hospitality. On the Alaska Highway, people still navigate by miles: Dawson Creek is Mile 0, Fort St. John is Mile 47, and Charlie Lake sits near Mile 54. Highway 97 carries that North Peace traffic along the Peace River corridor.

Recreation is civic architecture here. The Pomeroy Sport Centre holds an Olympic-sized indoor speed skating oval, two NHL ice sheets, a walking track, and the year-round Visitor Centre. North Peace Arena hosts the Fort St. John Flyers and Huskies; North Peace Leisure Pool covers the swim crowd; Centennial Park and Kin Park handle markets, diamonds, and bike jumps. Downtown, the North Peace Cultural Centre keeps theatre and concerts on 100 Avenue, while the Fort St. John North Peace Museum and Pioneer Pathway Walking Tour hold the longer memory.

Municipal history pages place the story in the Peace Region after Alexander Mackenzie's 1793 canoe trip and a 1794 trading-post beginning, with Dane-zaa and Treaty 8 relationships named in visitor materials. Outside the pavement, Beatton Provincial Park ski trails and Peace River lookouts remind you why energy and outdoors share the same newsbeat. Toboggan Hill Park even gives the dog crowd a named hill off 93 Street. If someone says Mile 47, Pomeroy, and North Peace in one sentence, they are already oriented.

Drawn from City of Fort St. John, City of Fort St. John, Energetic City.

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 Fort St. John

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

#178
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 394.9

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

#210
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 378297005

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

#139
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 0.527

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

#56
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

#71
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 233

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

#278
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 83

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

#57
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 0.02462495272513342

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

#186
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 9.787150932189176

Livability

Globe and Mail Most Livable Cities

The Globe and Mail

2023 data partnership with Environics Analytics ranking 439 Canadian communities on ten livability categories.

Single edition · 2023

#19
Published · 2023 · of 439

Only one published edition places Fort St. John in this study so far. Open the edition for method notes and the full table.

Original source · Full edition

Livability

Maclean's Best Communities

Maclean's

Successor-style municipal livability ranking published by Maclean's for 2019 and 2021 (no 2020 edition).

Single edition · 2021

#357
Published · 2021 · of 415

Only one published edition places Fort St. John in this study so far. Open the edition for method notes and the full table.

Original source · Full edition

Worth knowing in Fort St. John

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

  • Visitor materials place Fort St. John at Mile 47 of the Alaska Highway, with Charlie Lake near Mile 54 in local mile-marker talk.

    City of Fort St. John

  • Municipal visitor copy and the local news brand both lean on Energetic City as everyday shorthand.

    City of Fort St. John

  • Pomeroy Sport Centre houses an Olympic-sized indoor speed skating oval plus the city's Visitor Centre.

    City of Fort St. John

  • North Peace Arena is home ice for the Fort St. John Flyers and Fort St. John Huskies.

    City of Fort St. John

Places to see

Pomeroy Sport Centre

Multi-sport complex with the oval, NHL ice, walking track, and the desk where visitors still ask for Alaska Highway tips.

Centennial Park

Central park for events and the seasonal farmers market, set beside the pool and Rotary Spray Park.

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