Eight Alberta spots named top places to live in Canada for a comfortable life

Alberta has numerous cities with a lower cost of living than many parts of Canada, and several have been named top spots to live a comfortable life.

Canadian online personal finance and lifestyle magazine MoneySense examined the cost of living in 79 Canadian cities to figure out the annual income you’d need to earn to feel at ease living there.

In an attempt to get a more scientific measure of what it means to be comfortable in various parts of Canada, the publication turned to a cost-of-living tool developed by the job site CareerBeacon. All the Canadian cities on the list have populations of 50,000 or more and include the monthly cost for the average single person renting a home to live there, covering rent, transportation, food, utilities, clothing, leisure activities, and other expenditures.

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MoneySense then considered the additional needs for income taxes (including Employment Insurance and Canada Pension Plan contributions), which typically net out to between 20 per cent and 25 per cent of gross income for middle-income earners, and savings at 10 per cent to 15 pr cent. We then rounded up a further 10 per cent to 20 per cent as a “margin of comfort,” allowing for unplanned expenditures or additional savings.

Using this as a guide, it took a comfortable living in each community to be approximately double the calculated average cost of living.

Eight Alberta spots made the list, with Medicine Hat taking the top spot, landing in the top five best cities in Canada to live a comfortable life, with an income of just $70,416, coming in third place.

Other cities in Alberta that made the cut with an annual income required to be comfortable (single person) were Airdrie at $91,464, St. Albert at $88,728, Calgary at $87,894, Grande Prairie at $84,600, Edmonton at $79,080,  Red Deer at $78,384, and Lethbridge at $73,608.

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The cities requiring the highest incomes to feel financially comfortable are as follows:

• Richmond Hill, Ont. – $106,536
• Milton, Ont. – $106,392
• Whitby, Ont. – $105,624
• Coquitlam, B.C. – $104,928
• North Vancouver, B.C. – $103,512

You can view the full report online.