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Towns, cities and reserves · Canada

Best places to live in Canada. Explore every town in depth.

Find a place that feels like you. Each town gets detailed pages on 12 subjects, drawn from 17 public data sets. How deep the data goes →

Browse by province
Explore this townBoischatel#3 of 499 in QuebecA+
Cardinal CreekOntarioA+Sainte-Brigitte-de-LavalQuebecA+
13Provinces and territories
2,556Towns ranked
3,580Places
Canada by province

Start with a province

All 13 provinces and territories, each with its best-ranked town. Ontario has the most ranked towns, 858.

British Columbia250 ranked towns · 355 places#1Oak BayA+
Manitoba181 ranked towns · 284 places#1LorneA+
Nunavut0 ranked towns · 18 places

No ranked towns yet

Rankings

The best-graded towns in Canada

The 10 top-graded of 2,556 ranked towns of 2,500 or more, with each town’s rank in its own province.

The full ranking →
#1Shannon#1 of 499 in QuebecA+Explore the town →#2Lac-Beauport#2 of 499 in QuebecA+Explore the town →#3Boischatel#3 of 499 in QuebecA+Explore the town →
Town history

Every town has a past. We went and found it.

Every place on Canada’s registers of historic places, 3,570 of them, from National Historic Sites to the buildings a town protects, placed in its town.

See Niagara-on-the-Lake’s history →
Looking down Market Street towards the Niagara District Court House, Niagara-on-the-Lake, 2007On the registers · 28

Looking down Market Street towards the Niagara District Court House, Niagara-on-the-Lake, 2007.
DimiTalen (CC0)

History town of the day

Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario

28 places on the registers11 National Historic Sites13 designated nationallyOn record since1796

Niagara-on-the-Lake’s oldest designated place, Fort George, dates from 1796. Among them: Brock’s Monument, Butler's Barracks and Fort Drummond.

Open Niagara-on-the-Lake’s history →

National Historic SitesPlaces of national significance, designated on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board

Registered placesThe Canadian Register, the federal heritage buildings and Quebec’s own register

On the mapEach place where it stands, with its dates

Old homesHow many of the town’s homes were built before 1961

Places: the Canadian Register of Historic Places and the Directory of Federal Heritage Designations (Parks Canada), and Quebec’s Répertoire du patrimoine culturel.

Town of the day

Saint-Sauveur: 77% of households rent

Saint-Sauveur’s lowest grade is for cost of living (D). Where it does best is health (A+). Walking, cycling and public transport work well here (A+). All told, that adds up to a B− overall and a rank of #364 of 499 in Quebec. It comes out better than 46% of Canadian towns.

Open Saint-Sauveur →
Saint-Sauveur, Quebec
B−Overall#364 of 499 in Quebec

Home to 16,104 people, this neighbourhood lies in Québec. It is one of the 35 neighbourhoods that make up Québec. On foot, by bike or on transit: that is how 42% of commuters get to work.

HealthBetter than 99%of Canadian towns on healthWho lives here37.8Median age of residents, 2021 census
See all of Saint-Sauveur →Find a town
Inside a town

What a town’s pages cover

Take a look at these pages in Saint-Sauveur, today’s town.

B−SafetyPolice-reported crime, weighted by severity, graded against Canadian towns.Saint-Sauveur: Safety →DHousing & costWhat homes sell for, rents, and what they cost against local incomes.Saint-Sauveur: Housing & cost →A+Work & commuteJobs, incomes, and how people get to work.Saint-Sauveur: Work & commute →SchoolsEvery school nearby, and what each one offers.Saint-Sauveur: Schools →A+HealthHow healthy people are, against the country’s rates.Saint-Sauveur: Health →C−Natural hazardsRadon, earthquakes, wildfire and flood studies, and how much of the town they reach.Saint-Sauveur: Natural hazards →Who lives hereAges, households, where people were born, and how they travel.Saint-Sauveur: Who lives here →HistoryEvery place on Canada’s heritage registers, and how old the homes are.Saint-Sauveur: History →OutdoorsParks, green space, protected nature and the coast nearby.Saint-Sauveur: Outdoors →AttractionsMuseums, castles, gardens and days out in and around town.Saint-Sauveur: Attractions →ClimateA year of weather: rain, sunshine, frost and summer highs.Saint-Sauveur: Climate →C+Town hallThe council, the councillors and who to call.Saint-Sauveur: Town hall →Quebec rankingsEvery graded town in Quebec, ranked, with Saint-Sauveur among them.Quebec rankings →
Compare towns

Next door can be a world apart

Set up to four towns side by side: home prices, safety, health, commutes and more, row by row. Here’s Saint-Sauveur beside its neighbours.

Compare any towns →
vs
Saint-Sauveur vs MontcalmHouseholds in Montcalm have more to live on
vs
Saint-Sauveur vs Saint-SacrementSaint-Sacrement has more people 65 and over
vs
Saint-Sauveur vs VanierSaint-Sauveur’s homes are older
Browse by province

Find a town by province

The 13 provinces and territories from A to Z. Each opens every one of its places: its ranked places of 2,500 or more first, with their grades and province ranks, then every other place from A to Z.

Best in your province
Best schools, safest, most affordable and more, town by town.
See every townof 2,556 ranked towns
More lists across Canada
Best small townsHealthiestJobs & incomeMost walkableLowest hazard riskCivic lifeHighest incomesFastest-growingMost historicMost bilingualYoungestOldestMildest wintersColdest wintersWarmest summersCoolest summersFewest frostsLeast snowSnowiestDriestWettest
See every townof 2,556 ranked towns
Province report cards

How the 13 provinces and territories compare

Every one of the 13 provinces and territories has an overall grade, from 8 subjects. Quebec comes first and Nova Scotia last; 4 are in the A band and 2 in the D band.

Open the full map →
pensnbThe Maritimes
ABCDNo gradeHover or tap a shape for its name; click it, or tap it again, to open it.
  1. 1Quebec#1 ShannonA+
  2. 2Alberta#1 Upper Mount RoyalA
  3. 3Ontario#1 StittsvilleA−
  4. 4Yukon#1 WhitehorseA−
  5. 5Manitoba#1 LorneB+
  6. 6Northwest Territories#1 YellowknifeB
  7. 7Prince Edward Island#1 North ShoreB−
  8. 8NunavutC+
  9. 9New Brunswick#1 QuispamsisC
  10. 10British Columbia#1 Oak BayC
  11. 11Saskatchewan#1 RosetownC−
  12. 12Newfoundland and Labrador#1 Labrador CityD
  13. 13Nova Scotia#1 Fall RiverD−
The map

All 3,580 towns on one map

Zoom into your corner of Canada. Each dot is a town you can open.

Open the full map →

Scroll to zoom · drag to pan · click a town to open it

Mapping Canada…
Canada, one map

Click any dot to open that town.

—towns in view
Cities, neighbourhood by neighbourhood

The 24 cities split into neighbourhoods

Each city of 250,000 or more is graded through its neighbourhoods, 1,406 in all, and its card names the best-graded one. Toronto is the largest, with 3.27 million people.

How grades work

One letter, the same everywhere

Each subject compares a place with Canada’s towns of 1,000 or more, which set the scale: a city neighbourhood or a reserve is placed on it and never moves a town. Schools are graded in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta only, each against its own province, as those three publish school results.

How grades work →
  • A+top 5%
  • A85–95
  • A−75–85
  • B+65–75
  • B55–65
  • B−45–55
  • C+35–45
  • C25–35
  • C−15–25
  • D5–15
  • D−bottom 5%

Questions about TownRatings Canada

What is the best place to live in Canada?

Among 2,556 ranked towns of 2,500 or more, Shannon, Quebec ranks first, with its best grades in health and jobs & income. Every ranked town is on the list of the best places to live, and on its province’s where five or more are ranked.

Is my town graded?

Every town in Canada has its page: all 3,580 places. What depends on size is the grading. The 2,638 towns of 2,500 or more get every grade the data allows, and 2,556 of them an overall grade; towns of 1,000 to 2,499 get subject grades, and smaller places have their page with the figures, without grades.

Where do the grades come from?

Public data under open licences: Statistics Canada’s 2021 census and population estimates, police-reported crime by force and detachment (the Crime Severity Index), CMHC rents, the Canadian Community Health Survey, school results from Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta, Natural Resources Canada’s seismic risk model and burned-area records, Health Canada’s radon survey and the registers of historic places. TownRatings turns them into grades; it surveys no one.

Why are schools graded in only three provinces?

Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta publish test results school by school, so a town there gets a Schools grade against its own province’s towns. Quebec publishes its success rates by school service centre, Nova Scotia by regional centre (and only until 2019–20), and the other provinces and the territories not school by school at all. Towns there have a Schools page listing every school nearby, with no grade, and an overall grade built from the other subjects.

Photos: Boischatel, Gilbertus (CC BY 3.0) · Cardinal Creek, Vince Alongi from Delta, B.C., Canada (CC BY 2.0) · Sainte-Brigitte-de-Laval, Gabriel Picard (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Red Deer, Waynercook (Public domain) · Oak Bay, rpaterso (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Lorne, DrBeetrootCa (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Quispamsis, P199 (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Labrador City, Quintin Soloviev (CC BY 4.0) · Yellowknife, TravelingOtter from Houston, Texas, USA (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Fall River, WabbitWanderer from London, Canada (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Iqaluit, Sebastian Kasten (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Stittsville, SimonP at English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0) · North Shore, Dennis G. Jarvis (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Shannon, Roncanada (CC BY 4.0) · Rosetown, Canadian2006 (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Whitehorse, C Robson (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Lac-Beauport, Gabriel Picard (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Saint-Elzéar, Société du patrimoine des Beaucerons - Fonds PR86 - Collect… (Public domain) · Saint-Alexandre-de-Kamouraska, Claude Robillard (CC BY 2.0) · Sainte-Catherine-de-la-Jacques-Cartier, Gabriel Picard (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Saint-Bernard, Félix Mathieu-Bégin (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Sainte-Marie, Sjvachon (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Marathon, davestew89 (CC BY 3.0) · Division No. 19, Unorganized, Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit , Lyndon B. Johnson S… (Public domain) · Carp, P199 (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Brookside - Briarbrook - Morgans Grant, massage-techniques (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Burlington, Canmenwalker (CC BY 4.0) · Blainville, P199 (CC BY-SA 4.0) · North Vancouver, Xicotencatl (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Niagara-on-the-Lake, DimiTalen (CC0) · Saint-Sauveur, Jeangagnon (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Montcalm, Wilfredor (CC0) · Saint-Sacrement, Wilfredor (CC0) · Vanier, Gabriel Picard (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Lawrence Park North, Jennie Faber from Toronto, Ontario, Canada (CC BY 2.0) · Outremont, Jeangagnon (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Beltline, formulanone (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Rhatigan Ridge, jasonwoodhead23 (CC BY 2.0) · North River Heights, Wtshymanski (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Castlemore Estates, Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit , Lyndon B. Johnson S… (Public domain) · Roseborough, Adam Bishop (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Fairview, Canmenwalker (CC BY 4.0) · Sunnyside, DJ Cane (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Sheldon, JFVoll (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Cap-Rouge, Judicieux (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Argyle, Jfvoll (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Sainte-Rose, Jeangagnon (CC BY-SA 3.0) · German Mills, Sikander Iqbal (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Vellore, Raquel. (CC BY 3.0) · Bridgeport North, Liam Quinn from Canada (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Brighton, Stephen Glauser from Calgary, Canada (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Des Explorateurs, Cantons-de-l'Est (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Heights, https://www.flickr.com/people/sillygwailo/ - sillygwailo / … (CC BY 2.0) · Roseland, Chris Woodrich (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Collectivité Nouvelle, Jeangagnon (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Arcola East, Daniel Paquet from Regina, Canada (CC BY-SA 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons.

Sources: TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranking Canadian towns against each other only, run #73 of 10 November 2026 · Statistics Canada, 2021 Census of Population and population estimates. Under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).