Cranbrook Ranks 97 out of 190, Best Places to Live 2012

Money Sense this month features its 'Best Places to Live 2012'
A total of 105 points was up for grabs. Each category (below) was allotted a number of points depending on the importance of the category. For example, employment statistics are worth 10 points while sales taxes are worth 1 point. Some categories are further broken into subcategories. For example, the crime category is determined by statistics in the subcategories of violent crime, crime severity and total crime.

The top city in each category received the maximum number of points, and the rest of the cities received descending incremental points based on their ranking.

For example, in the area of unemployment, Estevan, Sask. had the lowest unemployment rate in the country (1.6%). It was ranked No. 1 in that category and received 10 points. The second-best city in the unemployment category, Wetaskiwin, Alta., received 9.95 points. The next city was Swift Current, Sask. with 9.89 points and so on down to the 190th city (Bay Roberts, N.L. unemployment rate 16.8%), which received 0.53 points.

Calculations for some other categories follow a slightly different methodology. For example, in the category of population growth, an annual rate of 7.9% was considered ideal. Anything below or above that rate loses points and cities with a population loss got zero. The same is true for the subcategory of precipitation, which makes up part of the weather category. (The ideal number is 700 mm a year, with anything above or below that losing points accordingly)

As well, 5 bonus points have been added based on the percentage of people employed in arts, culture, recreation and sports.

While a perfect score in all categories would give a city 105 points, the top city this year, Ottawa, only garnered 74.11 points. Our lowest ranking city, New Glasgow, N.S., scored 33.8 points.

A city’s points are then ranked with all other cities to determine the best places to live overall.

In our ranking out of 190 places to live, we ranked low (162) in affordable housing, low in possession of new cars (172), low in low crime rate(165).  Interestingly we ranked relatively high in doctors per 1000 population at 17 and weather at 38.  One must assume the number of doctors would include specialists which would skew the appearance of family doctor availability. 

For the full report:
http://www.moneysense.ca/2012/03/20/canadas-best-places-to-live-methodology-2012/