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Saint John, New Brunswick
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New Brunswick · Civic arena

Saint John

Saint John drinking water hardness is 186 mg/L on OpenStats, plus City Score rankings and local readings.

Civic arena · hometown HUD

Saint John

Census_metropolitan_area131k pop
45XP
#251

#251 of 343

45% City Score XP

Dropping
City Score XP

6/8 pillars on the board

45%#251

Decade trail

Saint John packs 6 of eight open-data pillars into its composite standing. Tap a rival below to see how the hometown stacks up head-to-head.

Rivalries on deck

vs Campbelltonvs Bathurstvs SackvilleCustom matchup →

Saint John drinking water

Regional estimate from nearest municipal sample

Hardness, pH, and lead from municipal reports on the OpenStats water atlas. This page uses a regional estimate — open the water atlas for method notes.

Hardness
186 mg/L
very hard
pH
7.4
Lead
0.2 μg/L

Full Saint John water quality report →City Score rankingsCompare cities · vs Campbellton · vs BathurstHardness guide

Watershed to tap · system map

How Saint John's water works

Source, treatment, and distribution for Saint John from municipal and provincial water records. Open the animated map for the full watershed-to-tap diagram — no nested topic navigation here.

Open full system map →Full Saint John water atlas page
Water atlas · animated system map
City Score rankings →Compare cities →vs Campbellton →vs Bathurst →

Local numbers for Saint John

Permits, tax, internet, radon, hazards, drinking water, and sports rankings where a CHL hometown applies.

PermitsBuilding permits in Saint JohnTaxBrowseProperty taxInternetInternet in Saint JohnRadonRadon in Saint JohnHazardsHazards in Saint JohnWaterWater quality in Saint JohnSportsBrowseSports

How Saint John scores

Dropping−58

Saint John sits at City Score rank #251 with a standing of 45%, from 6 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. Dropping 58 places versus 2022 (#193 → #251).

Latest owned placements: indoor radon rank #88 of 327 at 118 Bq/m³ survey mean. Full tables and method notes live on each study edition; atlas readings for the same slug open from the topic buttons.

Among Canadian cities on the hub, Saint John carries a City Score standing of 45% (rank #251 of 343) with 6 of 8 pillars observed. That sits 3 points below the New Brunswick peer average across 16 ranked cities. Within New Brunswick, Saint John ranks #11 of 16 on City Score.

The strongest signal in the current chart is population growth (standing 58%, rank #144 of 343, +1.4% annual growth). The weakest observed pillar is indoor radon (standing 27%, rank #88 of 327). Crime severity uses the Statistics Canada police-service CSI mapped to Saint John, New Brunswick (table 35100026), not a regional proxy.

Drinking-water hardness on the water atlas reads 186 mg/L as CaCO₃ for Saint John. Compare that figure to the hardness pillar on the chart and to the national hardness guide on the hub.

#251
Arena rank (of 343)
45%
City Score
6
Pillars observed
Dropping−58
vs 2022
#193 → #251

Arena loadout

Topic XP bars

Arena rank #251 of 343

City Score

6/8 pillars · main XP bar

45%#251
Drinking water

Pillar avg · hardness #141

54%
Building permits

No placement

—
Internet

Rank #210

39%
Radon

Rank #88

27%
Hazards

Rank #104

30%
Property tax

No placement

—

Saint John pillar standing

Eight equal-weight City Score pillars, 2025 panel year.

TaxPermitsNetRadonWaterHazardsGrowthCrime

Source: OpenStats composite / study editions

City Score standing trend

Standing percentage by panel year (higher is better).

Years: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025

Source: OpenStats composite timeseries

Achievements

Dropping -58

In the news

Data desk

Hometown notes

City profile

Older hometown notes stay on the desk archive (noindex) — this section shows recent highlights only.

Saint John in brief

Saint Johners live with a water report that other cities would treat as theatre. The city homepage posts St. John River levels beside Bay of Fundy tide heights, and slack water is real schedule talk, not poetry. Where the river meets the bay, Reversing Falls Rapids put on the twice-daily collision locals point visitors toward from Wolastoq Park and Fallsview Park. Harbour Passage keeps people walking the harbour edge, while Irving Nature Park pulls the same Fundy habit out onto coastal trails. Even ordinary weeks feel tidal because the city dashboard refuses to let the bay become background.

Inland from the falls, Rockwood Park is the oversized backyard: trails, Lily Lake festival days, and a Rockwood Reservoir rehabilitation project that turns park infrastructure into city news. Downtown still runs through City Market and the denser streets Saint Johners treat as the everyday core. Saint John Transit covers the commute map, Glenn Carpenter Center shows up on recreation calendars, and New Brunswick Day is the August holiday that rewrites service hours. Discover Saint John packages the edge as Fundy tourism, but the municipal dashboard makes clear the tides are also ordinary civic weather.

On the OpenStats City Score for 2025, Saint John sits at rank 182 of 343. The hometown story is older and wetter than a composite score: watch the falls reverse, check the Fundy clock, and keep Rockwood on the weekend list. Swap those referents for another harbour city and the piece stops sounding like Saint John at all.

Drawn from City of Saint John, Parks and Recreation, Parks and Trails, Discover Saint John, Bay of Fundy, CBC New Brunswick.

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 Saint 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 household-weighted maximum advertised download (Mbps) from ISED National Broadband Data hex ISP rows, with hex-to-city assignment by population-weighted gravity. The headline 2025 score is the dwelling-weighted mean of per-hex technology ceilings (fibre and cable at 1 Gbps, DSL lower). Household-weighted 50/10 availability (%) is stored on atlas rows as avail_5010_pct. Earlier panel years backcast along a national speed curve with city-specific fiber and availability paths.

10 editions · 2016–2025

#210
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 325.3
0501002016201720182019202020212022202320242025

Original source · Full edition

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). Crime severity uses StatCan police-service CSI only (Tables 35-10-0026-01 and 35-10-0063-01); cities without a police-service match take median standing on the safety pillar. Growth uses StatCan CSD estimates; construction uses verified municipal building-permit value per resident (population field on each city record, 2021 Census vintage); 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

#251
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 0.451
0501002016201720182019202020212022202320242025

Original source · Full edition

Safety · OpenStats

OpenStats Crime Severity Index

OpenStats

Communities ranked by Statistics Canada Crime Severity Index at police-service grain (Tables 35-10-0026-01 and 35-10-0063-01 for British Columbia). Rank 1 is highest CSI (worse). Cities without a police-service match are not listed; the safety pillar scores at median standing on City Score. Hometown pages name the police service and reference year.

CSI from Saint John, New Brunswick (2025, Table 35-10-0026-01).

10 editions · 2016–2025

#53
Latest · 2025 · of 102
Score 69.98
0501002016201720182019202020212022202320242025

Original source · Full edition

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

#141
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 186
0501002016201720182019202020212022202320242025

Original source · Full edition

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

#88
Latest · 2025 · of 327
Score 118.4
0501002016201720182019202020212022202320242025

Original source · Full edition

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

#144
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 0.013794689044717784
0501002016201720182019202020212022202320242025

Original source · Full edition

Hazards · OpenStats

OpenStats Seismic Hazard (PGA)

OpenStats

Communities ranked by NRCan peak ground acceleration (higher = stronger shaking hazard). Rank 1 is highest PGA. The seismic model is multi-year; values are carried across the City Score panel and flagged as static until NRCan publishes a new generation.

10 editions · 2016–2025

#104
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 0.077
0501002016201720182019202020212022202320242025

Original source · Full edition

Worth knowing in Saint John

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

  • The city dashboard treats Bay of Fundy tide height and St. John River level as standing public conditions beside ordinary service news.

    City of Saint John

  • Reversing Falls Rapids form where the St. John River meets Fundy tide, with lookouts at Wolastoq Park and Fallsview Park.

    Discover Saint John

  • Municipal parks pages say Saint Johners use more than 2,200 acres of natural park space and about 56 kilometres of trails.

    City of Saint John

  • Rockwood Reservoir Rehabilitation Project appears in city spotlights alongside arena ice bookings and New Brunswick Day hours.

    City of Saint John

Places to see

Reversing Falls Rapids

The hometown water show at the river mouth. Locals send guests to Wolastoq Park or Fallsview Park and time the visit to the tide table.

Rockwood Park

Saint John's big in-city park, complete with Lily Lake event days and the Rockwood Reservoir file that keeps park infrastructure in the news.

Harbour Passage

A harbourside walk that keeps Fundy views inside an ordinary downtown outing, especially when paired with City Market.

Irving Nature Park

Coastal trails on the Fundy side for days when Rockwood's forests are not enough salt air.

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Related guides

Water hardnessIndoor radonBuilding permitsNatural hazardsBroadbandConstruction PulseNewsStudies

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