Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
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Saskatchewan · Civic arena

Saskatoon

Saskatoon drinking water hardness is 196 mg/L on OpenStats, plus City Score rankings and local readings.

Civic arena · hometown HUD

Saskatoon

Census_metropolitan_area317k pop
48XP
#199

#199 of 343

48% City Score XP

DroppingDirectSurface
City Score XP

7/8 pillars on the board

48%#199

Decade trail

Saskatoon 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.

Saskatoon drinking water

Direct municipal reading

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

Hardness
196 mg/L
very hard
pH
8.2
Lead
0 μg/L

Full Saskatoon water quality report →City Score rankingsCompare cities · vs Warman · vs Lloydminster (Part)Hardness guide

Watershed to tap · system map

How Saskatoon's water works

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

Local numbers for Saskatoon

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

Sports

Junior hockey in Saskatoon

Full sports page →
Team
Saskatoon Blades
League
WHL
Points %
50.0%

68 GP · 68 pts · Compare CHL cities

How Saskatoon scores

Dropping−25

Saskatoon sits at City Score rank #199 with a standing of 48%, 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 25 places versus 2022 (#174 → #199).

Latest owned placements: building permit value rank #19 of 25 (2025); indoor radon rank #43 of 327 at 152 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, Saskatoon carries a City Score standing of 48% (rank #199 of 343) with 7 of 8 pillars observed. That sits 1 points above the Saskatchewan peer average across 16 ranked cities. Within Saskatchewan, Saskatoon ranks #7 of 16 on City Score.

The strongest signal in the current chart is seismic hazard (standing 94%, rank #321 of 343, raw score 0.017). The weakest observed pillar is indoor radon (standing 13%, rank #43 of 327). Crime severity uses the Statistics Canada police-service CSI mapped to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (table 35100026), not a regional proxy.

Drinking-water hardness on the water atlas reads 196 mg/L as CaCO₃ for Saskatoon. Compare that figure to the hardness pillar on the chart and to the national hardness guide on the hub.

#199
Arena rank (of 343)
48%
City Score
7
Pillars observed
Dropping−25
vs 2022
#174 → #199

Arena loadout

Topic XP bars

Arena rank #199 of 343

City Score

7/8 pillars · main XP bar

48%#199
Drinking water

Pillar avg · hardness #125

68%
Building permits

Rank #19

28%
Internet

Rank #270

22%
Radon

Rank #43

13%
Hazards

Rank #321

94%
Property tax

No placement

—

Saskatoon 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 -25Direct municipal readingSurface water supply

Hometown notes

City profile

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

Saskatoon in brief

Saskatoon introduces itself as the City of Bridges, and the municipal bridge pages mean it literally: Traffic Bridge, Broadway Bridge, University Bridge, Chief Mistawasis Bridge, and the rest stitching Nutana, Riversdale, and downtown across the South Saskatchewan River. The river is the spine. Meewasin Valley Authority stewards that corridor with the City, the province, and the University of Saskatchewan, and the Cree-rooted name miýwâsin ("it is beautiful") still heads Meewasin's about page. River Landing is the downtown riverfront district where families gather, festivals spill, and the trail network meets the city centre under the bridge arches.

Summer talk runs to the EX at Prairieland Park, complete with transit SuperPass pitches, Dog Day of Summer at Mayfair Outdoor Pool, and quieter hours at the Prairie Butterfly House. Engage Saskatoon is the city's feedback brand for projects that reshape streets and parks. Growth shows up as bridge projects and Corman Park-edge planning arguments as often as it shows up as skyline chat. Spadina, Broadway, and the university side are directions people give without explaining the map, because the river crossings already did the explaining for generations of errands and shift changes.

Saskatoon's prairie energy is river-first and bridge-named. Morning runs follow Meewasin trails, evening plans may end at River Landing, and exhibition week pulls the whole city toward Prairieland Park. Named spans and the South Saskatchewan's working valley do the organizing here, which is why the City of Bridges line still sounds like ordinary local speech rather than a borrowed tourism sticker.

Drawn from City of Saskatoon, Meewasin Valley Authority, City of Saskatoon.

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 Saskatoon

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

#270
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 125.2

Construction · OpenStats

OpenStats Building Permit Value per Resident

OpenStats

Cities ranked by calendar-year municipal building permit value per resident (total permit dollars divided by the OpenStats population field). Permit totals use verified municipality-grain rows (Statistics Canada CSD or equivalent municipal open data). Population uses Statistics Canada Census 2021 (tables 98-10-0006-01, 98-10-0002-01). Cities without a verified municipal permit series are unplaced; City Score uses median standing on the construction pillar.

Single edition · 2025

#19
Published · 2025 · of 25
Score 2431.0192768048382

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

Original source · Full edition

Sports · OpenStats

OpenStats CHL Points Percentage

OpenStats

Canadian Hockey League (OHL, WHL, QMJHL) member cities ranked by regular-season points percentage. One CHL team maps to each OpenStats hometown slug; standings snapshot is curated from public league tables.

Single edition · 2025

#33
Published · 2025 · of 45
Score 0.5

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

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

#199
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 0.484

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 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (2025, Table 35-10-0026-01).

10 editions · 2016–2025

#31
Latest · 2025 · of 102
Score 98.87

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

#125
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 196

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

#43
Latest · 2025 · of 327
Score 151.7

Sports · OpenStats

OpenStats Local Sports Depth

OpenStats

Hometowns with a mapped junior hockey franchise ranked by local sports depth: league tier (CHL member leagues = 1.0, MHL = 0.65) multiplied by regular-season points percentage. Surfaces cities with both a franchise and a strong standings year; not a City Score pillar input.

Single edition · 2025

#33
Published · 2025 · of 49
Score 0.5

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

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

#61
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 0.023661554801023447

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

#321
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 0.017

Housing

CMHC Average 2-Bedroom Rent — Lowest Rent

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

Average rent for purpose-built 2-bedroom apartments (all tenants) from CMHC Rental Market Survey. Rank 1 = lowest average rent among covered CMAs.

Single edition · 2025

#7
Published · 2025 · of 18
Score 1548

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

Original source · Full edition

Housing

CMHC Purpose-Built Rental Vacancy — Highest Vacancy

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

Purpose-built rental apartment vacancy rate from CMHC Rental Market Survey (October). Rank 1 = highest vacancy (most available rental stock among covered CMAs).

Single edition · 2025

#11
Published · 2025 · of 18
Score 3.3

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

Original source · Full edition

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

#12
Published · 2023 · of 439

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

Original source · Full edition

Worth knowing in Saskatoon

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

  • City bridge pages brand Saskatoon the City of Bridges for the structures spanning the South Saskatchewan River.

    City of Saskatoon

  • Meewasin explains its name from nêhiyawêwin/Cree miýwâsin, meaning "it is beautiful," for the river valley corridor.

    Meewasin Valley Authority

  • The Traffic Bridge promise helped Nutana agree to join Saskatoon and Riversdale in forming the city in 1906.

    City of Saskatoon

  • Saskatoon EX at Prairieland Park is enough of a civic fixture that transit promotions advertise free rides for SuperPass holders.

    City of Saskatoon

Places to see

Meewasin Valley

River valley conservation and trail corridor that turns a downtown walk into an outdoor commute along the South Saskatchewan.

River Landing

Downtown riverfront district planned for gathering, culture, and trail connections between the Traffic Bridge and Broadway Bridge zone.

Broadway Bridge

Steep Depression-era span that still defines how people say they are heading across to Broadway and Nutana.

Prairieland Park

Fairgrounds home of Saskatoon EX and a summer landmark in city service announcements.

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Related guides

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