2025 Annual Canadian City Rankings: OpenStats City Score report

OpenStats publishes its 2025 City Score annual edition today: an equal-weight composite of eight open-data pillars across 172 Canadian cities. Each pillar counts one eighth. Radon exposure, drinking water hardness, building permit value, residential mill rates, broadband download speeds, seismic hazard (peak ground acceleration), police-reported Crime Severity Index, and StatCan population growth enter the mean on the same footing. Scores run from 0 to 1, higher is better on the composite board.

This report is the flagship read for media and civic desks. Full tables live on the rankings hub and on each atlas topic page. Hometown charts carry the decade panel back to 2016. The sections below open with the national top 25, then walk pillar by pillar so a single loud input does not get mistaken for a whole city verdict. External magazine lists and OpenStats answer different questions; this file stays with the numeric board.

Top 25 composite, 2025 edition

Edmonton holds rank 1 at 0.721, ahead of Ottawa at 0.709. The capital region pairs strong permit value ($7.4 billion on the 2025 board) with mid-prairie radon and population growth near 3.4% annually. Edmonton has led or contended on the composite through the decade panel; the 2025 score is the headline number for Alberta's capital this cycle. Airdrie (rank 8, 0.649) and Spruce Grove (rank 22, 0.611) show the same province stacking depth below the capital.

Ontario's Golden Horseshoe supplies much of the upper tier. Oakville (0.682), Barrie (0.673), and Hamilton (0.672) sit at ranks 3 through 5 after steady decade gains on permits, tax, and connectivity inputs. St. Catharines is the year's clearest single-year climber among that peer set: up 30 ranks, from 40 to 10, at 0.629, tied with Sorel-Tracy on score. Permit value near $3.1 billion and broadband readings in the 58.9 Mbps band help explain Niagara's jump without turning it into a one-metric story. Burlington (rank 11) and Oshawa (rank 21) extend the same regional cluster inside the top 25.

Toronto at rank 24

Toronto finishes 24th at 0.606, level with Wetaskiwin at 25. That placement is not a civic collapse narrative. Toronto still leads national building permit value at $25.1 billion, more than $8 billion ahead of Vancouver. Composite rank averages eight pillars. Hard water in the regional band, higher mill rates than many peers, and radon readings below the prairie extremes all pull against permit scale. Markham (rank 19, 0.62) and Vaughan (rank 6, 0.66) score higher on the same composite formula inside the GTA. Calgary (rank 33, 0.587) and Vancouver show the same tension elsewhere: large economies, mixed pillar scores.

Radon

On the radon pillar, rank 1 marks the highest survey means (worse for indoor air). Regina, Moose Jaw, and Weyburn share 301.7 Bq/m³ at the top of the board. Winnipeg and several Manitoba peers post 256.7 Bq/m³. Quebec's Sherbrooke and Cowansville appear at 238.2 Bq/m³. Composite leaders Edmonton and Ottawa sit well below those prairie and eastern Quebec peaks, which helps their all-pillar average even when other topics lag.

Water hardness

Drinking water hardness on OpenStats uses municipal and regional mg/L as CaCO₃ readings where direct coverage exists. Water atlas pages carry source and treatment detail. Guelph and the Kitchener-Waterloo pair head the hardness ranking at 460 and 400 mg/L. Soft coastal supplies still lift composite scores for Victoria and Vancouver even when those cities rank lower on permits or tax.

Building permit value

Permit value ranks total approved construction dollars, so Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal dominate raw dollars. Mid-size climbers such as St. Catharines and Hamilton punch above their population on this pillar, which fed both cities' composite gains. Open the permits atlas for monthly Construction Pulse detail beneath these annual totals.

Residential mill rates

Property tax mill rates rank higher on the pillar board when residential mills are heavier. Atlantic and northern Ontario cities cluster at the top. Prairie majors generally post lower mills, which supports Edmonton and Calgary on the tax input even when other pillars disagree.

Broadband download speeds

ISED-derived download speed medians put several smaller Quebec and Ontario cities at 64.2 Mbps in the top tier. Alberta's major cities share a 41.5 Mbps band on the latest extract. Composite rank treats connectivity as one eighth of the mean, so a fibre-rich suburb and a prairie capital can diverge sharply on this line alone.

Seismic hazard

Peak ground acceleration from NRCan hazard grids ranks highest along the B.C. coast and parts of Quebec. Victoria leads at 0.474 g. Vancouver and Burnaby remain in the western top tier. Central Canada posts lower PGA values, which lifts composite scores there on the hazards pillar.

Crime Severity Index

Police-reported Crime Severity Index values rank higher where reported severity is higher. Northern capitals Yellowknife and Iqaluit top the national pillar board. Saskatchewan and Manitoba regional rows cluster in the next band. Composite leaders are not automatically low-CSI cities; the pillar is one input among eight.

Population growth

StatCan annual population growth rates reward fast-growing cities on the composite. Lloydminster leads at 5.0%. Airdrie and Spruce Grove exceed 4%. Moncton, Edmonton, and Barrie sit in the upper cohort below 4%. Slow or flat growth drags the pillar score without erasing strength elsewhere.

How to use this report

Pick a hometown on city pages for the gauge, pillar breakdown, Rising or Dropping badge when ranks move five places or more, and links into each atlas topic. Read City Score methodology for weighting and coverage rules. This annual edition is a snapshot; the decade chart on each city page remains the better frame for long-run movement.

Reporters comparing magazine livability lists to OpenStats should keep the inputs separate. City Score does not score cafes, climate preference, or survey taste. It averages documented pillars. Edmonton at 0.721 and Toronto at 0.606 are both legible once the eight lines are on the table. For broadcast clips, lead with composite rank and score, then name the pillar that moved if a badge fired on the hometown chart.