Cost of living index: How Canadian cities compare to NYC
Life in Canada can seem so expensive that you might be thinking of moving to a world-class city like New York for the money you’re shelling out. But how do Canadian cities stack up to life in NYC?
The Cost of Living Index 2023 from Numbeo shows how expensive life is in Canada’s major cities compared to New York City.
An important note about this index is that it excludes rent. According to Numbeo, their scores are a relative indicator of “consumer goods prices, including groceries, restaurants, transportation and utilities.”
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New York City is the standard and gets a score of 100. So, if a city has an index of 70, it means that, on average, the cost of living is 30% less expensive than in New York City.
Excluding rent means that cities with notoriously expensive rent, like Vancouver and Toronto, might not place where you’re expecting them on this list. Let’s take a look at the cities with the highest cost of living index compared to New York:
- Victoria – 75.0
- Nanaimo – 74.7
- Toronto – 73.0
- Vancouver – 71.7
- Calgary – 71.3
- Markham – 69.8
- Edmonton – 69.5
- Kamloops – 69.3
- Fredericton – 69.1
- Ottawa – 68.2
Western Canada dominates the list with Victoria, where rents can be almost as expensive as Vancouver, coming in at number one.
Life in Vancouver and Toronto, without considering rental prices, is still nearly 30% less expensive on average than life in New York City.
Other cities on the list included Halifax (67.9), Montreal (65.3), Surrey (66.3) and Kingston (63.7).
For more on the cost of living globally, you can see the full Numbeo report online. Read more about how much money you need to make to live alone in each city: