Calgary tumbles down list of most liveable cities in North America | Daily Hive

Another global ranking was just released, although this time we have less to brag about. According to the latest global livability ranking, Calgary has fallen out of the top 10. By a lot.

According to the 2025 Global Livability Index from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Calgary saw the biggest drop on the whole list.

In last year’s report, Calgary surpassed other Canadian cities, coming in at number five on the global livability index. Unfortunately, it seems that pride indeed cometh before the fall, because the 2025 report knocks us down 13 pegs to 18th place, the biggest drop on the list.

Worse still is that this seems to be a trend in other parts of Canada.

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Out of the three other Canadian cities listed, Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal, two also saw a decline in their livability score. Toronto fell from 12th to 16th place, while Montreal now sits at 19th.

Vancouver is the only Canadian city in the top ten this year.

Apparently, Canadian cities struggled to keep up their score for healthcare due to strains on the country’s national health services.

EIU ranks cities based on a variety of factors, including stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. Qualitative and quantitative factors are weighted and provided a score of 1-100, with one considered intolerable and 100 considered ideal. A liveability rating is then provided both as an overall score and as a score for each category.

Calgary came in with an overall score of 94.7 in its new spot at 18th place. Toronto scored a little better with 94.9 overall, Montreal came in below at 93.8, and Vancouver beat the lot with an overall score of 95.8.

As far as the other 173 cities on the list, the average livability score was unchanged from last year at 76.1, while Western Europe continues to dominate as the best-performing region for livability.

North American cities, however, saw their average score slip to 90.4. According to the EIU, this is owing to a decline in healthcare scores for the four Canadian cities where the debate over funding for the decentralized national health service remains unresolved.

But it’s not all bad! The EIU still states that “North American cities remain highly sought-after places to live in, with all 21 reporting the highest tier of livability (defined as a score of 80 or above).”

Nonetheless, it seems like Calgary has some catching up to do.

What are your thoughts about the latest Global Livability Index ranking? Let us know in the comments, and feel free to check out the full report online.