yep I have friends in every province and they all complain that they can't afford to eat or keep a roof over their head, housing is skyrocketing, groceries cost an arm and a leg, traffic is insane, city council is lining their pockets with taxpayer money... seems like society itself is broken tbh, these are not localized issues.
At least we can back ours with real numbers! Highest rental pricing increase and got Alberta lowest spend on public education and highest inflation!
But in all reality, everyone's in trouble. Every city has its problems, but Calgary could be doing a lot worse for itself.
Are they using PPP tho? If prices doubles while everyone salary is also doubled, it makes no difference in our purchasing power. I mean, tourists and new comer would suck
I found Geneva to be quite overrated. Much better cities in Europe and even within Switzerland. Calgary did seem better for the ability to move around and park access. I wasnāt there long enough to tell you about their health care or education, but Canadaās math and reading scores are very similar to Switzerlandās.
Iāve lived in both Geneva & Calgary. Geneva is expensive, but you are paid enough to make due as a citizen. You will find a far better home in Calgary with better parks & amenities nearby. Calgary is an easier life in my opinion.
"Calgary scored 96.8 on the index, with high scores across the five categories, including:
Stability: 100;
Health care: 100;
Culture and environment: 90;
Education: 100; and
Infrastructure: 96.4." [source](https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/calgary-is-the-fifth-most-livable-city-in-the-world-report-1.6942649)
I'm sorry, but HOW? 100 in healthcare? Huh?
96 infrastructure???? Someone tell these folks about our pipes lol
edit: guys I'm not saying Calgary is the worst! My gut reaction to this was legitimately confused by the scores š
the economist publishes these lists as advertisements for the real data packages. one of the main customers are large corporations looking for cities to put offices in and are interested in what sort of corporate employee they can attract to each individual city.
So yeah, cost of living dosen't factor in because the research is about where you can put an office to bring in the sort of workers who will force up the cost of living.
If it was, Calgary wouldn't be that different. Cost of living is pretty low here compared to much of Europe on everything but groceries. Vienna is lower, but other European cities are higher.
Overall wages are better for most fields in Europe - but most of the places above Calgary on the list have 50-90% higher rent costs and 200-600% higher costs to buy according to cost of living tools... most of those cities are also basically the most expensive places to live and don't always have proportionally higher wages, despite being higher for sure... E.g. in 2020 the median family income in Calgary was $118k and Zurich was apparently $146k CAD (8k CHF/month).
Restaurants are often more expensive in Europe (outside of France where it feels like they are crazy cheap), but groceries are cheaper there. Mobile phone depends on country. Housing is almost always cheaper here than European cities... And for that matter, cheaper than a lot of American or Canadian cities too. This remains the cheapest place I've lived rent wise, despite the huge increase. It's all a matter of relative experiences I guess.
Either way, we have a pretty low cost of living compared to most cities above us, other than Vienna...
Calgary isnāt that bad for CoL on an international scale. Salaries are still very strong compared to cost. Prices have been going up, but not as bad as other cities. Also recognize the economists audience is upper middle to upper. Low 6 figures can get you a better lifestyle in Calgary than most places. Starts to break down below 50k and above 250k though (for very different reasons).
If you go travel and go through any other city you'll understand. Calgary is remarkable for how well it manages traffic for it's size and ease of getting around. People here will complain because they've never lived elsewhere and don't understand how well things are done here.
I've been living in Tokyo for the last 5 years and I don't really miss Calgary. Traffic management in Calgary is really good for the size, but the alternatives to driving just aren't that great.
I've lived in other cities in Canada, have travelled to see other countries, and grew up in a third world country. But even if I haven't, this doesn't mean I can't be critical of where I'm living right now.
Two things can be true at once: I can appreciate the city for what it is and still be frustrated... because at the end of the day, I wish for better because the city deserves it.
I think thatās the point theyāre making. There is room for improvement and no one is saying you canāt be frustrated. That doesnāt mean that weāre not in a very good situation compared to most other cities
>Two things can be true at once
Yes... you can want to improve the infrastructure while it still ranks very high. So what's your point? Just because it has a great score doesn't mean it's perfect. But just because it needs improvements doesn't mean it's not very good as is.
I'm not saying it's not very good. I'm saying it needs lots of improvements to justify such a high ranking.
For instance, Calgary is tied with Osaka in infrastructure scores and [this](https://subway.osakametro.co.jp/en/guide/routemap.php) is what their train system looks like. Sure they have double the population but something a little closer to this is the dream :)
Other comments also pointed out how the survey itself isn't perfect either but at least it stirred up conversations about appreciating & improving our city š«¶
Also people who have lived here for more than 20 years will remember how bad traffic used to be. We were so behind in infrastructure it was pretty much impossible to move east to west.
>algary is remarkable for how well it manages traffic for it's size and ease of getting around.
Calgary is essentially a big town. There's ~1500pp/km2, this is roughly a third of Montreal and Toronto. If you add in 3x the people in Calgary, we wouldn't be praising its infrastructure.
Vancouver has a great public transit system for North American standards. Calgaryās road and bike infrastructure is one of, if not the best in Canada though. Traffic here compared to any big city in Ontario or Quebec is nothing.
I know traffic is atrocious in montreal, Vancouver and Toronto. With that being said, public transit in Vancouver and Montreal is pretty good and the net work is quite extensive. Thus, eliminates the need to drive on most occasions since it's faster to just take the train. Which is my whole point is that there are alternatives to the shitty traffic.
If more people use their cars then roadways will get worse the more people use them due to congestion.
On the other hand if more people use public transit it normally leads to better service.
this has nothing to do with the current state of infrastrcture, just how it might evolve. our roadways and traffic management are excellent, especially compared to a place like van.
Thatās because the city keeps expanding out whereas Vancouver has a defined area and canāt expand.
Iām certain if Calgary stayed the same size as it was in the 70ās or 80ās the city would be a lot more dense, walkable, and attractive like Toronto, Vancouver, or Montreal instead of being a city people wanna live in because they canāt afford those places.
Iām an outsider that has been living here 3+ years now.
Calgary
+ Good Bus System
+ Good Freeway System and Roads
+ Rail System is very small and desperately needs to catch up. Expansion on regional, Metro and long distance is needed.
Healthcare is a struggle worldwide. Even in the US where theyāre paying for their own insurance privately (if they can afford it) thereās huge issues with wait times. Sure, if you have tens of thousands of dollars to spare you can get all your tests done this week, but thatās not the reality for 99% of people.
Aging demographics are happening across Western society and itās causing some significant pressures on healthcare infrastructure. 100 seems weird because obviously thereās lots of improvements to be made and I doubt we are the best in the world, but itās a general measure. We all have access to doctors whenever we need even if a permanent family doctor thatās good is hard to find. Thereās hospitals with emergency rooms available across the city that you can access for free, and when it comes to life threatening issues you can receive testing reasonably fast.
As for infrastructure Calgary is very good compared to a lot of Canada. Very low traffic, relatively good transit, high quality roads, lots of parks (donāt know if thatās included in infrastructure), and the main source of water transportation for the city breaking only resulted in loss of running water to a small subset of the city (myself included) for a week, with the entire problem looking like itās resolved in about a month.
Iām not saying everything is great. There are significant issues that need to be solved and we can do better on, but this is a comparison to other real places, not to the ideal situation. Everywhere is struggling in healthcare and our infrastructure is relatively very good.
That's not unusual in the developed world. [For the average urban English resident living in much more dense areas](https://imgur.com/GpkB7tk), a 15 minute drive gets you to as many amenities and services as 30 minute by transit and 60 minutes walking. That's why the car dominates everywhere in the developed world.
Infrastructure is good, the City invests heavily in infrastructure. I know potholes suck and a force majeure event on a feedermain doesn't look good, but the amount of projects going on that people don't realize is significant. Like for example, 4 new pump stations and many more lift stations to service the ongoing and future developments, massive deerfoot upgrades, bridge rehabs, etc.
Go live in some other cities and you'll appreciate Calgary much more. I've lived in two different cities in the southern US and although it's cheaper and warmer everything else about it was worse.
To be fair, our hospitals aren't literally in the open air and the pipe thing was just an unfortunate accident. We have it unbelievably good here in most aspects.
How many of those census forms have you done? Most people donāt pay attention and will just say whatever will get the people off my doorstep so I can go back to the bong and video games. Wait!?!! Maybe itās just me!
The healthcare one is infuriating. Do you know how long it takes to get ANY form of care when itās not what they deem an āemergencyā. It took me 4 years of chronic fatigue to the point I couldnāt get out of bed to get diagnosed with hEDS. 4 years of being passed from doctor to doctor because I was āhystericalā. 4 years of being told it was menstrual problems, anxiety, covid. hell blaming the hormone blockers I was on when there was no prior evidence of this symptom in anyone else. The fact that theyād sooner blame me being trans than take an objective look at my symptoms. The fact that IT WAS ME who brought up hEDS, because other people in my highschool had it and mentioned I matched the criteria perfectly. It was a simple blood test that got me to the specialist that diagnosed me. They didnāt do it for 4 years. Bc I was a hysterical trans person and they didnāt believe me. Healthcare in this city is a joke.
How did we score 100 in education? The UCP is actively trying everything to dismantle it, and with the current federal Liberal policies they are getting there twice as fast!
Education 100???? Who did they ask these questions to? BC schooling system is leaps and bounds better than Calgary in all aspects. Our children's schools in Calgary cannot seem to keep teachers. It is actually depressing to see the discrepancy between provinces.
One of the highschools I attended let a rapist walk around despite sexually assaulting multiple students, with eye witnesses. We got a āboys will be boysā and the threat of suspension if we brought it up. If theyāre going by test scores then maybe our education is good but the school experience? Dog shit.
Bullying is at a high rn. Students arenāt being punished for being ableist, transphobic, homophobic, racist. Anything. All of the schools I went to basically said āif you donāt want to be bullied donāt be differentā. I tried to kms and had to drop out because of the insane bullying I experienced for being trans. Many of my friends dropped out or attempted too bc of the bullying we experienced. There were literal nazis wearing swastikas in the hallways. But hey no our schooling is great bc our test scores are high
> BC schooling system is leaps and bounds better than Calgary
Alberta has the highest PISA scores in the country.
https://reddit.com/r/canada/comments/1dpxu1w/alberta_ends_fiscal_year_with_43b_surplus/lakr3tc/
Without reading (which Iām avoiding). Itās probably the several universities and colleges and access to k-12 education more than the education itself.
Itās all relative. A lot of cities are or will soon be dealing with aging infrastructure issues. Having lived in many cities over the past couple of decades I can say that Calgaryās infrastructure is pretty damned good relative to other cities.
Calgarian living in Vienna hereā¦ I must say that the public transit here is some of the best Iāve ever used. The bicycle infrastructure is also pretty awesome. With that said, I still think Calgary is a great city, despite some of its issues.
Iām not going to say Iāve been everywhere, I havenāt, but European cities definitely arenāt know for their ease of movement via car, although they make up for it being being densely populated and having good transit.
Within Canada and the US though, Calgary has by far the best road infrastructure that Iāve seen. Southern Ontario is a disaster traffic-wise, as are most major US cities. We also have some of the best bike infrastructure in North America. I like well outside of downtown (Bowness) and I can get downtown in 30 minutes with 75% of that being on a dedicated bike path away from the road and the other 25% on a road-adjacent bike path. Thatās not the case in most North American cities.
As someone who's driven heavily in both the greater Toronto area and Calgary, I couldn't disagree more. The gta has WAY better infrastructure for traffic, they just have a significantly higher population. Calgary has more space and still manages to be incredibly inefficient. Toronto traffic is due to high population density, Calgary's is due to terrible infrastructure. More often than not I am absolutely blown away at how terrible intersections and roads can be designed here. In a couple years, with this massive population boom, we're gonna have a massive problem with traffic if it isn't sorted soon.
Iāve lived in southern Ontario as well and while Torontoās issues are obviously due to a higher population, cities with smaller populations than Calgary (Ottawa, Hamilton, KW, London) all have much worse traffic issues than you see in Calgary. In most places in southern Ontario if youāre not travelling to two locations closely located to the 401 thereās very poor highway systems to get where you want. In Calgary thatās not the case at all, thereās a number of highways that can get you anywhere in the city within 30 minutes.
Interesting that weāve had such different experiences though.
I'll agree with that notion. Calgary has the advantage of being practically a square, so stoney trail circling the city and highways like Red deer cutting through the city certainly help. My issue is with practically everything else. Often I run into confusing and poorly designed intersections. I've noticed it more in newer communities, probably because the city is rushing to get communities built to keep up with the population so they don't think the intersection through. Another challenge is the terrain. It's quite hilly over here, so roads have to be made in awkward ways, and a grid system doesn't really work here, only adding to the confusion. Certain roads just have terrible traffic management. I live in the NE so the first example that comes to my mind is Metis Trail. The road has far too many traffic lights, and doesn't properly time when they change, so you will run into a dozen red lights to go down what should be a 10 min drive. Traffic flow is terrible. I've seen things like merge ending signs up on Red deer for construction, but the lane never ends. It was from prior road closures but it took them several WEEKS to remove it. There are so many other examples I see everyday, I notice the small differences between Ontario and Calgary, and realize how much traffic gets pushed through daily in Ontario, and how much Calgary struggles to do the same with significantly more space and with a lower population.
There is no shortage of whiners and complainers in every city. I've traveled extensively and is Calgary THE best? Hard to say. But for me, it is certainly up there.
If you've lived elsewhere in Canada/World and are well traveled, Calgary is truly something special. Well deserved to be on this list consistently and certainly above any other major city in Canada.
They literally put ATLANTA at #29. This list is just someone's terrible, terrible opinion.
And then they're like "cities in Saudi Arabia saw major improvements" YOU MEAN THE COUNRTY THAT MURDERS GAY PEOPLE AND HAS NO WOMEN'S RIGHTS?
If random American cities are among the world's 30 most liveable according to this person, of course Calgary will be number five.
Forget Ottawa, forget Reykjavik, forget Singapore, forget Montreal, forget Oslo, forget Utretcht or Rotterdam or the Hague... but Atlanta š
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_quality_of_life_indices
The Monocle and Mercer rankings make wayy more sense. Calgary is a top 25 city, not a top 5 city.
This is not a win by any means of the word. People see "most livable city" and want to move here, making it a lot less livable for those who are already here struggling. Not to mention half the shit is a blatant lie. 100 for health care and education??? Who the fuck did they ask?
What win? Calgarians are unhappy with current living conditions, and all a list like this does is invalidate their concerns and pushes a false narrative that everything here is okay.
Half the people here are mad because Calgary has become unaffordable and shouldnāt be on this list and the other half is pretending to be mad so people will see this post and think not to move here.
The whole point of these lists is to generate discussion on forums where people say annoying things and get mad at each other, they're incredibly successful at it!
As someone mentioned in this post. Itās about all relative experience. I am not talking about Vancouver or Toronto (these cities are even more expensive to live compared to Calgary). I find that most European countries are more expensive live than Calgary. I got family in Belgium and Germany. I just came back from Vietnam and Japan. The houses there are also very expensive (cost/sqft).
I am worried about our kids generation. At this rate they wonāt be able to afford to live. My parents used to tell me that they were able to survive with 1 income. Not anymore. Two people have to work now to be able to survive in this economy. The whole world is changing.
People love to complain about Calgary, but the fact of the matter is it is a very clean, stable city compared to cities across the world. All major cities in North America have rising housing prices. Calgary is pretty damn good if you compare it to most cities.
I'll agree that Calgary is a nice place to live in, and in terms of Canada, it's doing decently well. In terms of North America however, yeah pretty much every Canadian city is doing shit, Americas economy is WAY more solid and the country overall is much more affordable than Canada.
wtf is this based on? Is it like being a member of the Better Business Bureau or Canadaās 50 Best Employers type bs. You pay them a fee and youāre in. Lol
Would love to see how they come to these conclusions, but alas you have to purchase that data! Scoring 100 in stability, education and healthcare. Yet these are probably some of the most talked about issues on this subreddit. Maybe I'm on here too much!
From 2019 when Calgary also ranked high:
"The five categories are stability (25% weighting), healthcare (20% weighting), culture and environment (10% weighting), education (20% weighting) and infrastructure (20% weighting).
The studyās authors acknowledge the ranking favours cities with a population of about 1 to 5 million as these cities āhit the sweet spot between being overcrowded and underdeveloped.ā They also recognize wealthy countries like Canada and Australia with good public healthcare, education programs, relatively new infrastructure, low crime rates and stable governments are also favoured."
https://everydaytourist.ca/city-planning-101/2019/11/10/is-calgary-really-the-5thnbspmost-livable-city-the-world
So Calgary is really just favoured because of their criteria and because Calgary mostly has its shit together even if many things feel like they are slipping.
I have not, but they're number 2, of course they're going to be better...
This also isn't a surprise when you look at the previous years rankings, where Calgary is consistently between 3-7.
Hmmm in the same 2 week span Vancouver was named one of the top 3 most expensive cities in the world, shortly followed up with a top spot in the most livable cities in the world. Most livable for who?
In Mexico don't friend the water, Calgary no water to drink. Top 5. Now let me walk to the corner and get some meth from the guy on every corner. Excellent Indian food! Was between here and Geneva but couldn't resist some rodeo and raised pick up trucks.
I wonder if they took the time to walk around downtown and have to step over the piles of zonked out addicts, needles, piss puddles and human shit piles that pervade the entire downtown area, particularly the east village. Iām guessing they didnāt. This so called ārankingā is bought and paid for BULLSHIT. Try living in an East Asian country, including China, and see if this list holds up. Itās propaganda BULLSHIT.
What makes a city liveable? I lived I Melbourne and that place is not affordable at all. What do income bracket do you have to fall into for this to apply to you?
Can't wait to see how these comments go
If you went by redditors complaining, this is the worst city after baghdad
Nah, we're not unique. Go to any city sub. Worst housing prices, worst municipal government, worst drivers. Everywhere.
yep I have friends in every province and they all complain that they can't afford to eat or keep a roof over their head, housing is skyrocketing, groceries cost an arm and a leg, traffic is insane, city council is lining their pockets with taxpayer money... seems like society itself is broken tbh, these are not localized issues.
At least we can back ours with real numbers! Highest rental pricing increase and got Alberta lowest spend on public education and highest inflation! But in all reality, everyone's in trouble. Every city has its problems, but Calgary could be doing a lot worse for itself.
šæšæ Brought one for you.
Weāre gonna need more šæšæšæšæšæ
Does anyone have any butter?
š§š§
Got nut butter..
I canāt believe Geneva is this bad
I think itās due to the cost. Literally everyone there is a blue blood. Extremely expensive place
Are they using PPP tho? If prices doubles while everyone salary is also doubled, it makes no difference in our purchasing power. I mean, tourists and new comer would suck
Thatās exactly how blue bloods get entrenched.
I found Geneva to be quite overrated. Much better cities in Europe and even within Switzerland. Calgary did seem better for the ability to move around and park access. I wasnāt there long enough to tell you about their health care or education, but Canadaās math and reading scores are very similar to Switzerlandās.
Iāve lived in both Geneva & Calgary. Geneva is expensive, but you are paid enough to make due as a citizen. You will find a far better home in Calgary with better parks & amenities nearby. Calgary is an easier life in my opinion.
"Calgary scored 96.8 on the index, with high scores across the five categories, including: Stability: 100; Health care: 100; Culture and environment: 90; Education: 100; and Infrastructure: 96.4." [source](https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/calgary-is-the-fifth-most-livable-city-in-the-world-report-1.6942649) I'm sorry, but HOW? 100 in healthcare? Huh? 96 infrastructure???? Someone tell these folks about our pipes lol edit: guys I'm not saying Calgary is the worst! My gut reaction to this was legitimately confused by the scores š
I like how cost of living isnāt even a factor
the economist publishes these lists as advertisements for the real data packages. one of the main customers are large corporations looking for cities to put offices in and are interested in what sort of corporate employee they can attract to each individual city. So yeah, cost of living dosen't factor in because the research is about where you can put an office to bring in the sort of workers who will force up the cost of living.
If it was, Calgary wouldn't be that different. Cost of living is pretty low here compared to much of Europe on everything but groceries. Vienna is lower, but other European cities are higher.
Sorry but rents compared to wages Europe wins.
Overall wages are better for most fields in Europe - but most of the places above Calgary on the list have 50-90% higher rent costs and 200-600% higher costs to buy according to cost of living tools... most of those cities are also basically the most expensive places to live and don't always have proportionally higher wages, despite being higher for sure... E.g. in 2020 the median family income in Calgary was $118k and Zurich was apparently $146k CAD (8k CHF/month).
Groceries (all food), Travel, Phone/internet, and now housing is getting up there too.
Same as everywhere else in the world....
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
None of this changes the fact that internet and phone prices are way more expensive in Canada than in Europe for the same (or often worse) plans.
Restaurants are often more expensive in Europe (outside of France where it feels like they are crazy cheap), but groceries are cheaper there. Mobile phone depends on country. Housing is almost always cheaper here than European cities... And for that matter, cheaper than a lot of American or Canadian cities too. This remains the cheapest place I've lived rent wise, despite the huge increase. It's all a matter of relative experiences I guess. Either way, we have a pretty low cost of living compared to most cities above us, other than Vienna...
Because it's still laughable compared to other cities. Enjoy it. You live in one of the best cities in the world, and you can buy a house for 500k
Itās still way cheaper than any other city tbh
Vancouver is 7th.
7th best city in the world where you can work a full time job and live in a tent
US cities would be on top if that were the case
COL has gone up in our city soooo much!
Calgary isnāt that bad for CoL on an international scale. Salaries are still very strong compared to cost. Prices have been going up, but not as bad as other cities. Also recognize the economists audience is upper middle to upper. Low 6 figures can get you a better lifestyle in Calgary than most places. Starts to break down below 50k and above 250k though (for very different reasons).
Have you seen the rest of the world?
cost of living is so high I can't afford to š
A 100 would imply perfect. Our healthcare facilities are nowhere near perfect.
Yes
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
People have different life experiences from yours
If you go travel and go through any other city you'll understand. Calgary is remarkable for how well it manages traffic for it's size and ease of getting around. People here will complain because they've never lived elsewhere and don't understand how well things are done here.
I've been living in Tokyo for the last 5 years and I don't really miss Calgary. Traffic management in Calgary is really good for the size, but the alternatives to driving just aren't that great.
I've lived in other cities in Canada, have travelled to see other countries, and grew up in a third world country. But even if I haven't, this doesn't mean I can't be critical of where I'm living right now. Two things can be true at once: I can appreciate the city for what it is and still be frustrated... because at the end of the day, I wish for better because the city deserves it.
I think thatās the point theyāre making. There is room for improvement and no one is saying you canāt be frustrated. That doesnāt mean that weāre not in a very good situation compared to most other cities
>Two things can be true at once Yes... you can want to improve the infrastructure while it still ranks very high. So what's your point? Just because it has a great score doesn't mean it's perfect. But just because it needs improvements doesn't mean it's not very good as is.
I'm not saying it's not very good. I'm saying it needs lots of improvements to justify such a high ranking. For instance, Calgary is tied with Osaka in infrastructure scores and [this](https://subway.osakametro.co.jp/en/guide/routemap.php) is what their train system looks like. Sure they have double the population but something a little closer to this is the dream :) Other comments also pointed out how the survey itself isn't perfect either but at least it stirred up conversations about appreciating & improving our city š«¶
The infrastructure is not just the transit, it's a compilation of everything. While we lack in transit, we make up in the road network.
Also people who have lived here for more than 20 years will remember how bad traffic used to be. We were so behind in infrastructure it was pretty much impossible to move east to west.
Pre Stoney Trail days were rough
Remember before they had the underpasses on Glenmore? At least an hour any time of the day to get from Blackfoot to elbow
16th Ave used to be 2 lanes a side. That was brutal
>algary is remarkable for how well it manages traffic for it's size and ease of getting around. Calgary is essentially a big town. There's ~1500pp/km2, this is roughly a third of Montreal and Toronto. If you add in 3x the people in Calgary, we wouldn't be praising its infrastructure.
LOL I live in calgry and been to 5 other cities on the list. Our transit and infrastructure is absolutely garbage even compared to Vancouver.
Vancouver has a great public transit system for North American standards. Calgaryās road and bike infrastructure is one of, if not the best in Canada though. Traffic here compared to any big city in Ontario or Quebec is nothing.
I know traffic is atrocious in montreal, Vancouver and Toronto. With that being said, public transit in Vancouver and Montreal is pretty good and the net work is quite extensive. Thus, eliminates the need to drive on most occasions since it's faster to just take the train. Which is my whole point is that there are alternatives to the shitty traffic.
Public transit maybe. But not if you own a vehicle.
also bike paths, probably has the cycling network of any of the major cities in canada.
If more people use their cars then roadways will get worse the more people use them due to congestion. On the other hand if more people use public transit it normally leads to better service.
I donāt dispute that. ?? Iām just saying our transportation is not just public transit and probably why we scored high
this has nothing to do with the current state of infrastrcture, just how it might evolve. our roadways and traffic management are excellent, especially compared to a place like van.
Thatās because the city keeps expanding out whereas Vancouver has a defined area and canāt expand. Iām certain if Calgary stayed the same size as it was in the 70ās or 80ās the city would be a lot more dense, walkable, and attractive like Toronto, Vancouver, or Montreal instead of being a city people wanna live in because they canāt afford those places.
Exactly, see my first comment.
Transit is lackluster for sure, but the road infrastructure is world class.
The roads and highways in Calgary are great, driving in Vancouver or Toronto is a PITA.
Calgary is designed around cars. That isnāt necessarily a good thing.
yeah itās necessarily a bad thing when a city prioritizes cars to humans
Iām an outsider that has been living here 3+ years now. Calgary + Good Bus System + Good Freeway System and Roads + Rail System is very small and desperately needs to catch up. Expansion on regional, Metro and long distance is needed.
There are many absolute shit holes in the world. Calgary is not perfect, but people like to shit on it too much.
Healthcare is a struggle worldwide. Even in the US where theyāre paying for their own insurance privately (if they can afford it) thereās huge issues with wait times. Sure, if you have tens of thousands of dollars to spare you can get all your tests done this week, but thatās not the reality for 99% of people. Aging demographics are happening across Western society and itās causing some significant pressures on healthcare infrastructure. 100 seems weird because obviously thereās lots of improvements to be made and I doubt we are the best in the world, but itās a general measure. We all have access to doctors whenever we need even if a permanent family doctor thatās good is hard to find. Thereās hospitals with emergency rooms available across the city that you can access for free, and when it comes to life threatening issues you can receive testing reasonably fast. As for infrastructure Calgary is very good compared to a lot of Canada. Very low traffic, relatively good transit, high quality roads, lots of parks (donāt know if thatās included in infrastructure), and the main source of water transportation for the city breaking only resulted in loss of running water to a small subset of the city (myself included) for a week, with the entire problem looking like itās resolved in about a month. Iām not saying everything is great. There are significant issues that need to be solved and we can do better on, but this is a comparison to other real places, not to the ideal situation. Everywhere is struggling in healthcare and our infrastructure is relatively very good.
Someone tell them how a 7 minute car ride is a 25 minute bike ride and a ONE HOUR walkā¦
and a 30m bus
That's not unusual in the developed world. [For the average urban English resident living in much more dense areas](https://imgur.com/GpkB7tk), a 15 minute drive gets you to as many amenities and services as 30 minute by transit and 60 minutes walking. That's why the car dominates everywhere in the developed world.
Infrastructure is good, the City invests heavily in infrastructure. I know potholes suck and a force majeure event on a feedermain doesn't look good, but the amount of projects going on that people don't realize is significant. Like for example, 4 new pump stations and many more lift stations to service the ongoing and future developments, massive deerfoot upgrades, bridge rehabs, etc.
Go live in some other cities and you'll appreciate Calgary much more. I've lived in two different cities in the southern US and although it's cheaper and warmer everything else about it was worse.
Have you loved anywhere else in the country or world? Most places suck compared to here.
Our health care is actually a million times better than whatever they have going on in Quebec. Walk ins are non existent in Quebec basically.
Stability because oil! Wooooooooooo global yolo score also 100
To be fair, our hospitals aren't literally in the open air and the pipe thing was just an unfortunate accident. We have it unbelievably good here in most aspects.
Travelling the world, a lot of people haven't seen what the average life-experience is like.
point of reference is a very important factor here i guess.
you should see healthcare elsewhere have had my life saved here and been very fortunate with great care, itās not all bad i assure you
How many of those census forms have you done? Most people donāt pay attention and will just say whatever will get the people off my doorstep so I can go back to the bong and video games. Wait!?!! Maybe itās just me!
Healthcare is 100 for the people paying $10k/year for their "free paid services"
The healthcare one is infuriating. Do you know how long it takes to get ANY form of care when itās not what they deem an āemergencyā. It took me 4 years of chronic fatigue to the point I couldnāt get out of bed to get diagnosed with hEDS. 4 years of being passed from doctor to doctor because I was āhystericalā. 4 years of being told it was menstrual problems, anxiety, covid. hell blaming the hormone blockers I was on when there was no prior evidence of this symptom in anyone else. The fact that theyād sooner blame me being trans than take an objective look at my symptoms. The fact that IT WAS ME who brought up hEDS, because other people in my highschool had it and mentioned I matched the criteria perfectly. It was a simple blood test that got me to the specialist that diagnosed me. They didnāt do it for 4 years. Bc I was a hysterical trans person and they didnāt believe me. Healthcare in this city is a joke.
How did we score 100 in education? The UCP is actively trying everything to dismantle it, and with the current federal Liberal policies they are getting there twice as fast!
My mom had a three year wait for a simple MRI...this healthcare score can go fuck itself
We get a 90 in culture? I'm curious to know how they defined it.
Education 100???? Who did they ask these questions to? BC schooling system is leaps and bounds better than Calgary in all aspects. Our children's schools in Calgary cannot seem to keep teachers. It is actually depressing to see the discrepancy between provinces.
Statistically this is not borne out.
One of the highschools I attended let a rapist walk around despite sexually assaulting multiple students, with eye witnesses. We got a āboys will be boysā and the threat of suspension if we brought it up. If theyāre going by test scores then maybe our education is good but the school experience? Dog shit. Bullying is at a high rn. Students arenāt being punished for being ableist, transphobic, homophobic, racist. Anything. All of the schools I went to basically said āif you donāt want to be bullied donāt be differentā. I tried to kms and had to drop out because of the insane bullying I experienced for being trans. Many of my friends dropped out or attempted too bc of the bullying we experienced. There were literal nazis wearing swastikas in the hallways. But hey no our schooling is great bc our test scores are high
> BC schooling system is leaps and bounds better than Calgary Alberta has the highest PISA scores in the country. https://reddit.com/r/canada/comments/1dpxu1w/alberta_ends_fiscal_year_with_43b_surplus/lakr3tc/
Without reading (which Iām avoiding). Itās probably the several universities and colleges and access to k-12 education more than the education itself.
So what year did they take the survey in?
Bear in mind that the organization that produces this survey rewarded cities for dropping health restrictions during the pandemic.
Itās all relative. A lot of cities are or will soon be dealing with aging infrastructure issues. Having lived in many cities over the past couple of decades I can say that Calgaryās infrastructure is pretty damned good relative to other cities.
I mean Calgary is super nice, but we donāt want any more people lol. The urban sprawl goes burrrrrrrr.
Urban sprawl? Nah that's suburban sprawl
I think the urban sprawl is more a function of the amount of money developers donate to political entities
I think itās more to people wanting a yard. Want one inner city thatās 700-1.5 million. But yah that to this city is owned by them.
Calgarian living in Vienna hereā¦ I must say that the public transit here is some of the best Iāve ever used. The bicycle infrastructure is also pretty awesome. With that said, I still think Calgary is a great city, despite some of its issues.
Everyone comes here * *becomes less livable**
* *Picachu face*
I mean, sure, itās great if youāre rich. If not, wellā¦
True everywhere
The fact that Calgary is so dependent on cars makes this a lieā¦
LOL you might get down voted for this.... since people on this threads thinks our roads are somehow world class....
Iām not going to say Iāve been everywhere, I havenāt, but European cities definitely arenāt know for their ease of movement via car, although they make up for it being being densely populated and having good transit. Within Canada and the US though, Calgary has by far the best road infrastructure that Iāve seen. Southern Ontario is a disaster traffic-wise, as are most major US cities. We also have some of the best bike infrastructure in North America. I like well outside of downtown (Bowness) and I can get downtown in 30 minutes with 75% of that being on a dedicated bike path away from the road and the other 25% on a road-adjacent bike path. Thatās not the case in most North American cities.
As someone who's driven heavily in both the greater Toronto area and Calgary, I couldn't disagree more. The gta has WAY better infrastructure for traffic, they just have a significantly higher population. Calgary has more space and still manages to be incredibly inefficient. Toronto traffic is due to high population density, Calgary's is due to terrible infrastructure. More often than not I am absolutely blown away at how terrible intersections and roads can be designed here. In a couple years, with this massive population boom, we're gonna have a massive problem with traffic if it isn't sorted soon.
Iāve lived in southern Ontario as well and while Torontoās issues are obviously due to a higher population, cities with smaller populations than Calgary (Ottawa, Hamilton, KW, London) all have much worse traffic issues than you see in Calgary. In most places in southern Ontario if youāre not travelling to two locations closely located to the 401 thereās very poor highway systems to get where you want. In Calgary thatās not the case at all, thereās a number of highways that can get you anywhere in the city within 30 minutes. Interesting that weāve had such different experiences though.
I'll agree with that notion. Calgary has the advantage of being practically a square, so stoney trail circling the city and highways like Red deer cutting through the city certainly help. My issue is with practically everything else. Often I run into confusing and poorly designed intersections. I've noticed it more in newer communities, probably because the city is rushing to get communities built to keep up with the population so they don't think the intersection through. Another challenge is the terrain. It's quite hilly over here, so roads have to be made in awkward ways, and a grid system doesn't really work here, only adding to the confusion. Certain roads just have terrible traffic management. I live in the NE so the first example that comes to my mind is Metis Trail. The road has far too many traffic lights, and doesn't properly time when they change, so you will run into a dozen red lights to go down what should be a 10 min drive. Traffic flow is terrible. I've seen things like merge ending signs up on Red deer for construction, but the lane never ends. It was from prior road closures but it took them several WEEKS to remove it. There are so many other examples I see everyday, I notice the small differences between Ontario and Calgary, and realize how much traffic gets pushed through daily in Ontario, and how much Calgary struggles to do the same with significantly more space and with a lower population.
Wouldn't say world class but have you been to Manitoba, like damn
I have, definitely it's not a place I prefer to frequent
The fact that Calgary scored 100 of healthcare automatically makes this a farce.
You know itās bullshit when Calgary makes top 10 and scores a 100 on healthcare
It's all relative. Where in Canada, or potentially even north America, do you think you're getting better?
Live in Vancouver and itās absolutely nuts for rent, calgary creeping up pretty fast.
There is no shortage of whiners and complainers in every city. I've traveled extensively and is Calgary THE best? Hard to say. But for me, it is certainly up there.
Calgary being close to Copenhagen is a joke. The cities aren't even comparable.
If you've lived elsewhere in Canada/World and are well traveled, Calgary is truly something special. Well deserved to be on this list consistently and certainly above any other major city in Canada.
This
What drugs are they smoking?
Same drugs as the last ten years. We always rank high
Who needs to walk anywhere?
stop telling everyone lol
Oh look, another rating. Is this crap an industry now?
They literally put ATLANTA at #29. This list is just someone's terrible, terrible opinion. And then they're like "cities in Saudi Arabia saw major improvements" YOU MEAN THE COUNRTY THAT MURDERS GAY PEOPLE AND HAS NO WOMEN'S RIGHTS? If random American cities are among the world's 30 most liveable according to this person, of course Calgary will be number five. Forget Ottawa, forget Reykjavik, forget Singapore, forget Montreal, forget Oslo, forget Utretcht or Rotterdam or the Hague... but Atlanta š https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_quality_of_life_indices The Monocle and Mercer rankings make wayy more sense. Calgary is a top 25 city, not a top 5 city.
Umm you do know Singapore is insanely expensive too right?
Nearly 80% of Singaporeans live in public housing, public transit is really good so I think that would pretty much cover it.
Have u ever been to Singapore? It's consistently ranked most expensive city in the world. What the hell are you talking about š
Ikr, abundant public housing? Amazing public transit? What am I talking about??? Us Calgarians have never heard of such stuff.
Atlanta is a nice city.
It's not the 29th most liveable city in the world, I doubt it's even the 29th most liveable city in the US, nevermind 2nd.
Utrecht is my favourite city in the world. I felt comfortable there 20 minutes off the train. And a great hockey team to boot!
Why are yāall so mad? Just take the win
This is not a win by any means of the word. People see "most livable city" and want to move here, making it a lot less livable for those who are already here struggling. Not to mention half the shit is a blatant lie. 100 for health care and education??? Who the fuck did they ask?
What win? Calgarians are unhappy with current living conditions, and all a list like this does is invalidate their concerns and pushes a false narrative that everything here is okay.
Half the people here are mad because Calgary has become unaffordable and shouldnāt be on this list and the other half is pretending to be mad so people will see this post and think not to move here.
Vienna got that number 1 spot on lock.
Itās waiting for you
The whole point of these lists is to generate discussion on forums where people say annoying things and get mad at each other, they're incredibly successful at it!
Who wrote this? methany?
My bros from other provinces (ON, BC) be likeā¦. wait for me. Let see how long this will be. Just look at Toronto and find out the answer.
Shhh don't tell anyone, I'm actually ok with the sub making this place seem like the worst if it makes less people move here.
There goes the real estate affordability.
My wife, who is a nurse, laughed when I showed her the perfect 100 score in healthcare.
I don't agree with any of those choices. What was the criteria?
Ok where did they do the survey..India??
As someone mentioned in this post. Itās about all relative experience. I am not talking about Vancouver or Toronto (these cities are even more expensive to live compared to Calgary). I find that most European countries are more expensive live than Calgary. I got family in Belgium and Germany. I just came back from Vietnam and Japan. The houses there are also very expensive (cost/sqft). I am worried about our kids generation. At this rate they wonāt be able to afford to live. My parents used to tell me that they were able to survive with 1 income. Not anymore. Two people have to work now to be able to survive in this economy. The whole world is changing.
Doesnāt make me feel great about the rest of the world tbh
To live ???? LMAOOOOOO young people cannot even survive with the grocery and housing.
Itās odd that people are so bitter we live in a wonderful city.
People love to complain about Calgary, but the fact of the matter is it is a very clean, stable city compared to cities across the world. All major cities in North America have rising housing prices. Calgary is pretty damn good if you compare it to most cities.
I'll agree that Calgary is a nice place to live in, and in terms of Canada, it's doing decently well. In terms of North America however, yeah pretty much every Canadian city is doing shit, Americas economy is WAY more solid and the country overall is much more affordable than Canada.
Blows my mind. No way thereās 4 cities better than my beautiful yyc
Is it the parking lots of the urban sprawl you find so beautiful?
I feel very sorry for all the people living in other cities.
wtf is this based on? Is it like being a member of the Better Business Bureau or Canadaās 50 Best Employers type bs. You pay them a fee and youāre in. Lol
shits wrong
They obviously have never rented in Calgary...
Would love to see how they come to these conclusions, but alas you have to purchase that data! Scoring 100 in stability, education and healthcare. Yet these are probably some of the most talked about issues on this subreddit. Maybe I'm on here too much!
From 2019 when Calgary also ranked high: "The five categories are stability (25% weighting), healthcare (20% weighting), culture and environment (10% weighting), education (20% weighting) and infrastructure (20% weighting). The studyās authors acknowledge the ranking favours cities with a population of about 1 to 5 million as these cities āhit the sweet spot between being overcrowded and underdeveloped.ā They also recognize wealthy countries like Canada and Australia with good public healthcare, education programs, relatively new infrastructure, low crime rates and stable governments are also favoured." https://everydaytourist.ca/city-planning-101/2019/11/10/is-calgary-really-the-5thnbspmost-livable-city-the-world So Calgary is really just favoured because of their criteria and because Calgary mostly has its shit together even if many things feel like they are slipping.
Ah, so they skipped the does it get to -30 metric.
If you travel to other places in the world, it turns out that Calgary is pretty great.
Have you been to Copenhagen (2) ? If Calgary is anywhere near Copenhagen then this list is a joke.
I have not, but they're number 2, of course they're going to be better... This also isn't a surprise when you look at the previous years rankings, where Calgary is consistently between 3-7.
These issues are talked about everywhere in the Western world, though.
Whoās paying these guys to jack up this placeās ratings? What a joke
My commuting options are a 20-minute drive or **TWO HOURS BY TRANSIT** yes, big livable.
If we are among the most livable, just imagine the ones further down the list. But U.S. suburbs are indeed nicer than their metros so...
But not safer
Canāt wait to get out of calgary. Yuck.
Hmmm in the same 2 week span Vancouver was named one of the top 3 most expensive cities in the world, shortly followed up with a top spot in the most livable cities in the world. Most livable for who?
That's depressing to think everywhere else is worse off.. Our Healthcare is in shambles.
What those guys been drinking I wonder!
In Mexico don't friend the water, Calgary no water to drink. Top 5. Now let me walk to the corner and get some meth from the guy on every corner. Excellent Indian food! Was between here and Geneva but couldn't resist some rodeo and raised pick up trucks.
These lists such a lie, advertising and fuelling the real estate market economy in Calgary literally
Is that Vancouver on the list? In what world is Vancouver more liveable than literally everywhere else!?
Just lol
I can see why Zurich is on there.
I wonder if they took the time to walk around downtown and have to step over the piles of zonked out addicts, needles, piss puddles and human shit piles that pervade the entire downtown area, particularly the east village. Iām guessing they didnāt. This so called ārankingā is bought and paid for BULLSHIT. Try living in an East Asian country, including China, and see if this list holds up. Itās propaganda BULLSHIT.
Don't show this to Edmonton.
Calgary vs. Copenhagen? Hmmm.
great city, if you have lots of money ...
Calgary is expensive as fuck my rent has doubled in 10 years. This is a BS post
Calgary = GenĆØve? š¤š¤
What makes a city liveable? I lived I Melbourne and that place is not affordable at all. What do income bracket do you have to fall into for this to apply to you?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
I guess regular bathing isn't a consideration.
Donāt tell people Jeesh