#1Shuniah
Ontario · 3,458 peopleOverall B+·#647 of 2,556
Strongest: schools A+, safety A+·lowest: walkability D
Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Shuniah, #1 on this list · Photo: P199 (CC BY-SA 3.0)Second place goes to Cathedraltown, at A+, and third to Buttonville, at A+. The A range holds 315 of the 861 on this list. Bottom of the list: Havelock, with D−. The schools grade compares places in Ontario with one another only, so no national list exists. First place in Ontario goes to Shuniah, with A+.
Schools grade: provincial test results of the schools in the place or within 3 km, scored within Ontario, British Columbia or Alberta How grades work
#1Overall B+·#647 of 2,556
Strongest: schools A+, safety A+·lowest: walkability D
#2Overall A−·#455 of 2,556
Strongest: schools A+, hazard risk A·lowest: cost of living D
#3Overall A−·#479 of 2,556
Strongest: schools A+, hazard risk A·lowest: cost of living C−
Schools is graded against places in Ontario alone, so it has no national order; beside each place sit its overall grade and national rank.
861 places
Photos: Shuniah, P199 (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Cathedraltown, Transportfan70 (CC0) · Buttonville, ChadPerez49 (CC BY-SA 3.0), 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. 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).