Sarnia, Ontario
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Ontario · Civic arena

Sarnia

Sarnia drinking water hardness is 162 mg/L on OpenStats, plus City Score rankings and local readings.

Civic arena · hometown HUD

Sarnia

Census_agglomeration98k pop
64XP
#23

#23 of 343

64% City Score XP

DroppingDirectSurface
City Score XP

7/8 pillars on the board

64%#23

Decade trail

Sarnia 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.

Sarnia drinking water

Direct municipal reading

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

Hardness
162 mg/L
hard
pH
8
Lead
0.2 μg/L

Full Sarnia water quality report →City Score rankingsCompare cities · vs Milton · vs PerthHardness guide

Watershed to tap · system map

How Sarnia's water works

Open full map

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

Local numbers for Sarnia

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

How Sarnia scores

Dropping14

Sarnia sits at City Score rank #23 with a standing of 64%, 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. Dropping 14 places versus 2022 (#9 → #23).

Latest owned placements: building permit value rank #65 of 343 (2025); indoor radon rank #304 of 343 at 62 Bq/m³ survey mean; residential mill rate rank #333 of 343 (6.94 mill rate). Full tables and method notes live on each study edition; atlas readings for the same slug open from the topic buttons.

#23
Arena rank (of 343)
64%
City Score
7
Pillars observed
Dropping14
vs 2022
#9 → #23

Arena loadout

Topic XP bars

Arena rank #23 of 343

City Score

7/8 pillars · main XP bar

64%#23
Drinking water

Rank #201

59%
Building permits

Rank #65

81%
Internet

Rank #314

9%
Radon

Rank #304

89%
Hazards

No placement

Property tax

Rank #333

97%

Achievements

Dropping -14Direct municipal readingSurface water supply

Hometown notes

Archive

Earlier years: 2026 · 2025 · 2024 · 2023

Sarnia in brief

Sarnia sits in Southwestern Ontario where Lake Huron empties into the St. Clair River at the Canada-US border. Municipal economic pages lead with that geography, then talk multi-modal corridors and a cultural district that shares the map with industry. Locals still hear Chemical Valley in everyday shorthand, while Observer headlines keep Line 5 and Sarnia-Lambton files on the front burner. Point Edward holds the Blue Water Bridge footings next door, and the twin spans remain the postcard backdrop from the water. Lambton museum pages treat the bridge as the place to watch freighters and eat fries with both countries in view.

Canatara Park is the parks-system centrepiece: a 174-acre north-end stretch on Lake Huron with Canatara Park Beach, the Children's Animal Farm, Canada Day, and Christmas on the Farm. City releases note Blue Flag status for the beach and a live master-plan conversation about future investment. Down at Sarnia Bay, the Andrew S. Brandt Marina lines up more than 350 slips with views of the Blue Water Bridges. Christina Street carries City Hall and the invest-Sarnia desk.

The calendar mixes border-city work with local play. Captain Kidd Days still marks the summer run on the Observer front, and Lambton College shows up whenever research and new programs make news. Bio-based manufacturing and research sit in the municipal growth pitch beside the older industrial story. Trail alerts on the Suncor Energy Foundation Nature Way remind people that conservation work and plant geography share the same shoreline. On OpenStats City Score for 2026, Sarnia sits at rank 106 of 125. People who live here still introduce the place by the lake-to-river turn and the bridges before they argue about plants or pipelines.

Drawn from City of Sarnia - Invest Sarnia, City of Sarnia - Canatara Park, City of Sarnia - Sarnia Bay Marina, The Sarnia Observer, Lambton County Museums - Blue Water Bridge.

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 Sarnia

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

#314
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 134.6

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

#65
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 744243097

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

#23
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 0.639

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

#314
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 57.17

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

#201
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 162

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

#304
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 62

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

#248
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 0.004452370856301913

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

#333
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 6.939252756798067

Worth knowing in Sarnia

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

Places to see

Canatara Park

North-end Lake Huron park with beach, Children's Animal Farm, and long-running community events. City staff call it the centrepiece of the parks system.

Blue Water Bridge

Twin spans over the St. Clair River toward Port Huron, with Point Edward at the Canadian footing. Lambton museum pages treat it as the county's border landmark.

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