Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Vertiflite · CC BY-SA 3.0The 10 km around town hold 82 protected areas. Biggest among them: Brampton Natural Heritage System, 1,126 ha, 0.1 km off. 22 km from town is Holland Landing Prairie Provincial Park, the nearest provincial park.
Each figure against Canadian towns of 2,500+; tap a tile for the detail.
Vaughan is strongest on Rouge National Urban Park within easy reach, with the number of public protected areas close by close behind.
Each figure against the 2,611 Canadian towns and neighbourhoods of 2,500+ (not city hubs or reserves), with the town marked and the typical one’s line. This page carries no grade, because Canada’s grading doesn’t cover the outdoors; the comparisons are the point.
CPCAD 2.9.0 (ECCC, 2026), OpenStreetMap (November 2026). Distances from the town’s outline.
The 40 Canadian towns nearest in population (106,752 to 358,535 residents), by the share of the land within 10 km that is protected. Hover for each one’s figures; click for its page.
Vaughan beats most towns its size for public protected areas; 6 of 39 do better. On walking routes it is behind: 20 of 39 have more.
| Town | Protected within 10 km | In town | Areas | Routes | Beaches | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Coquitlam BC | 25% | 28% | 130 | 5 | 69 |
| 2 | Delta BC | 24% | 17% | 181 | 9 | 19 |
| 3 | Richmond BC | 21% | 3.2% | 73 | 2 | 31 |
| 4 | Kamloops BC | 14% | 13% | 16 | 0 | 11 |
| 5 | Kelowna BC | 13% | 3.8% | 36 | 0 | 42 |
| 6 | Saanich BC | 11% | 9.4% | 43 | 7 | 56 |
| 7 | Strathcona County AB | 9.4% | 1.4% | 38 | 7 | 6 |
| 8 | Trois-Rivières QC | 8.4% | 1.2% | 44 | 1 | 10 |
| 9 | Cape Breton NS | 8.2% | 8.6% | 176 | 1 | 74 |
| 10 | Pickering ON | 7.6% | 11% | 46 | 1 | 11 |
| 11 | Greater Sudbury / Grand Sudbury ON | 6.7% | 3.5% | 43 | 5 | 18 |
| 12 | Saguenay QC | 6% | 6.1% | 29 | 0 | 11 |
| 13 | Kingston ON | 5% | 6.2% | 54 | 2 | 5 |
| 14 | Ajax ON | 4.9% | 5.8% | 31 | 1 | 8 |
| 15 | Vaughan ON | 4.4% | 6.5% | 82 | 1 | 0 |
| 16 | Lévis QC | 4.1% | 0.6% | 62 | 1 | 8 |
| 17 | Sherbrooke QC | 4.1% | 0.8% | 23 | 2 | 3 |
| 18 | Whitby ON | 3.9% | 4.7% | 37 | 1 | 3 |
| 19 | Abbotsford BC | 3.9% | 0.5% | 37 | 2 | 10 |
| 20 | Terrebonne QC | 3.8% | 3.6% | 60 | 0 | 3 |
| 21 | Langley BC | 3.5% | 2.9% | 144 | 8 | 10 |
| 22 | Barrie ON | 2.6% | 0% | 9 | 0 | 8 |
| 23 | Burlington ON | 2.5% | 1.6% | 27 | 2 | 17 |
| 24 | Oshawa ON | 2.4% | 0.3% | 30 | 1 | 4 |
| 25 | St. John's NL | 2.2% | 1.2% | 6 | 1 | 41 |
| 26 | Richmond Hill ON | 1.9% | 8.4% | 51 | 1 | 0 |
| 27 | Nanaimo BC | 1.9% | 6.7% | 42 | 2 | 33 |
| 28 | Cambridge ON | 1.7% | 0.4% | 33 | 10 | 2 |
| 29 | Bowmanville ON | 1.6% | 3% | 25 | 2 | 9 |
| 30 | Milton ON | 1.3% | 0% | 38 | 15 | 3 |
| 31 | St. Catharines ON | 1.2% | 1.7% | 15 | 4 | 7 |
| 32 | Niagara Falls ON | 1.1% | 1.7% | 15 | 3 | 4 |
| 33 | Chatham ON | 1% | 1% | 21 | 0 | 8 |
| 34 | Guelph ON | 0.9% | 3.1% | 15 | 10 | 5 |
| 35 | Oakville ON | 0.9% | 4.1% | 8 | 1 | 9 |
| 36 | Red Deer AB | 0.7% | 1.2% | 5 | 1 | 1 |
| 37 | Waterloo ON | 0.6% | 0% | 17 | 12 | 1 |
| 38 | Lethbridge AB | 0.4% | 0% | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 39 | Brantford ON | 0.3% | 0% | 15 | 3 | 0 |
| 40 | Thunder Bay ON | 0.1% | 0.4% | 3 | 0 | 4 |
Green space, woods, protected areas and footpaths in and around the city; tap a number for its park or wood.
The biggest is Kortright Centre for Conservation, 397 ha. Biggest first, numbered as on the map.
44% of the area is in just two places: Kortright Centre for Conservation and North Maple Regional Park.
Source: OpenStreetMap parks, gardens, commons and woods with a name, in the town or within 400 m, © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL. Sizes are the mapped outline’s.
Residents of each 2021 dissemination area, at a point inside it, within 400 m (about a 5-minute walk) of a park or playing field mapped on OpenStreetMap.
About 32,000 residents live further than 400 m from one. Few do better: the typical Canadian town is at 83%.
Every protected and conserved area in CPCAD within 10 km of the town’s edge: parks, reserves, wildlife areas and conservation land.
Of the 82, 41 are public land; the others are privately held. Biggest of the named areas: Brampton Natural Heritage System, 1,126 ha. 14 more areas within 10 km are private land, held by landowners or conservation groups: counted here, not named.
16 more named areas within 10 km are in the figures.
Source: Canadian Protected and Conserved Areas Database (CPCAD) 2.9.0, Environment and Climate Change Canada. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada.
National parks (Parks Canada) and provincial or territorial parks by direction and distance from the town’s edge: every one within 10 km, and the nearest of each within 100 km.
Source: CPCAD 2.9.0 (ECCC): areas and outlines, distances outline to outline; directions from the town’s centre point.
OpenStreetMap footpaths, paths, bridleways and steps, and tracks open on foot, in the town and 1 km around it; woods as mapped (landuse=forest, natural=wood).
For woods, it beats 55% of Canadian towns. Few places match it for paths: more than 50% of Canadian towns have fewer.
Source: OpenStreetMap, © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL. Mapping varies by place: a dense figure can mean keen local mappers as much as many paths.
Named walking and hiking routes on OpenStreetMap with at least 300 m within 2 km of the town, longest first; national routes lead.
Source: OpenStreetMap (route relations hiking, foot and walking), © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL. Trans Canada Trail sections as OSM maps them.
Daylight at the town’s latitude and ECCC’s 1991–2020 normals (Toronto Buttonville (Airport), 13 km away). Good months: long days, highs of 15–30 °C, light rain.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daylight (h) | 9.3 | 10.4 | 11.8 | 13.4 | 14.7 | 15.4 | 15.1 | 14.0 | 12.4 | 10.9 | 9.6 | 8.9 |
| High (°C) | -2 | -1 | 5 | 12 | 19 | 25 | 27 | 26 | 22 | 14 | 7 | 2 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 64 | 51 | 52 | 79 | 80 | 87 | 85 | 72 | 83 | 71 | 77 | 63 |
Highs peak near 27 °C in July and fall to -2 °C in January. February is the driest month at 51 mm; June the wettest at 87 mm. Snow totals about 146 cm a year. The climate in Vaughan →
Viewpoints, peaks, waterfalls, picnic sites, nature reserves, playgrounds, dog parks, campsites and boat launches mapped within 2 km of the town.
Playgrounds lead the count with 632.
Plus 1 viewpoint without a name on the map.
Plus 1 nature reserve more.
Plus 38 picnic sites without a name on the map.
Plus 624 playgrounds without a name on the map.
Plus 2 dog parks without a name on the map.
Plus 2 slipways without a name on the map.
Source: OpenStreetMap (tourism, natural, waterway and leisure tags), © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL.
Gardens and arboretums within 15 km of the town’s edge, and the historic gardens, parks and estates in the town itself, nearest first.
Sources: OpenStreetMap (leisure=garden), © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL, and Wikidata (CC0), as gathered in TownRatings’ Canadian attractions set; historic places from Parks Canada’s Directory of Federal Heritage Designations, the Canadian Register of Historic Places and Québec’s Répertoire du patrimoine culturel.
The nearest places, coloured by the share of the land within 10 km that is protected; tap one for its outdoors page.
| Town | Protected within 10 km | Areas | Routes | Beaches |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vaughan | 4.4% | 82 | 1 | 0 |
| Maple 1.7 km | 4.3% | 35 | 0 | 0 |
| Vellore 2.5 km | 5.1% | 26 | 0 | 0 |
| Peace Village 3.1 km | 5.7% | 44 | 0 | 0 |
| Carrville Corners 3.3 km | 4.1% | 33 | 0 | 0 |
| Dufferin Hill 3.3 km | 4.4% | 29 | 0 | 0 |
| Purpleville 3.4 km | 6.2% | 65 | 1 | 0 |
Around Vaughan, nobody nearby has double its protected land.
It is Brampton Natural Heritage System, a nature reserve covering 1,126 ha.
May and July to September: long days, mild highs and little rain.
The closest is Holland Landing Prairie Provincial Park, at 22 km.
The nearest is Rouge National Urban Park, 18 km away.
Within 10 km, 4.4% of the land lies in protected areas.
OpenStreetMap maps the Humber Valley Heritage Trail - Bolton Chapter close by.
Protected areas: Canadian Protected and Conserved Areas Database (CPCAD) 2.9.0, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 2026: every area within 10 km and the nearest national and provincial parks, measured outline to outline.
Walking routes and beaches: OpenStreetMap, November 2026: named hiking, foot and walking route relations within 2 km and beaches within 5 km.
Towns: Statistics Canada 2021 Census boundaries and populations; the comparison is the Canadian towns and neighbourhoods of 2,500+, not city hubs or reserves.
When to go: Environment and Climate Change Canada, Canadian Climate Normals 1991–2020, from the nearest station that publishes them.
Gardens: OpenStreetMap (leisure=garden) and Wikidata gardens within 15 km, as gathered in TownRatings’ Canadian attractions set; historic gardens and parks from Canada’s heritage registers (Parks Canada DFHD, the Canadian Register of Historic Places, Québec’s Répertoire du patrimoine culturel).
Green space, paths, woods, things to do: OpenStreetMap (Geofabrik’s Canada extract), November 2026: parks, gardens, playing fields, woods, footpaths, the coastline and things to do in and around each town.
Residents: Statistics Canada 2021 Census dissemination areas (population, boundaries), each at a point inside it.
Walking routes and beaches © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database Licence (ODbL).
Not on this page: trailheads and trail grades, and beach water quality. No open Canadian dataset gives these for every town yet.
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).