Do you want to know where the finest places to reside in Canada for raising a family are? Ontario has some of the most family-friendly cities in the country, and the capital – Ottawa, is near the top of the list.
Clever Canadian voted Ottawa second out of 51 Canadian cities as the most child-friendly. The cities were ranked using 10 criteria, including a safety index, the number of daycares, the median house price, and average household income.
The ten variables were assessed individually for each city. The results show that Ottawa‘s best appeal for families with children is its abundance of parks, which received a grade of three out of 51. The capital city is home to nearly 1,300 parks.
Population levels, the number of families with children, the safety index, and the unemployment rate are among the top indicators in Ottawa. The city, for example, has a safety rating of 72.73 and 146,540 families with children.
Quebec City, regarded as the finest place in the country to live if you have children, beat Canada’s capital.
Quebec City has the second-highest safety index of the 51 cities, at 84.88, with Trois-Rivieres being the safest. For a population of about 550,000 people, Quebec City has 107 daycares and 72,560 families with children. Its typical monthly childcare cost is also among the lowest in the country, at $181 per month, compared to $1083 per month in Ottawa.
Toronto is the only other Ontario city in the top ten, ranking seventh in Canada for family-friendly cities. Other cities in the top ten include Calgary in third place, Vancouver, Edmonton, Richmond, and Montreal in eighth place, and Saskatoon in tenth place.
Toronto ranks first in population, the number of families with children, and several daycares. It ranked second in the number of parks, with approximately 1500 located around the city. Its median house price and median monthly childcare cost were both ranked the lowest of all the cities featured, which may explain why this large metropolis isn’t towards the top of the list of most family-friendly cities.
If you have young children or intend to create a family in Canada, it may be time to relocate.
