Town of 33,000 residents named the most livable in Alberta
Alberta has plenty of dazzling spots to call home, but one town south of Calgary was tapped as the most livable in the province.
The Globe and Mail released its third edition of Canada’s 100 most livable cities on Thursday, with the ranking assessing 454 cities using 58 variables across 10 categories, including economy, housing, demographics, health care, safety, education, community, amenities, transportation, and climate.
“Our rankings are designed to help Canadians identify communities where they can flourish based on their individual circumstances,” wrote The Globe and Mail.
It also added new climate variables to measure how long periods of cold or heat affect energy costs, strain infrastructure and cause discomfort. It also included three new variables in the health care category.
The newspaper also broke down the rankings by city size: major, large, mid-sized, and small.
Three of the four top-ranked cities are in the Greater Vancouver Area, which the newspaper stated as a credit to the livability of that region as a whole.
The most livable community in Alberta came in 29th place overall and was none other than Okotoks, which is approximately half an hour south of Calgary.
Town of Okotoks/Facebook
The name Okotoks is derived from the Blackfoot word “Okatok,” which means “rock.” According to the Town of Okotoks, “The Blackfoot may have referred to this area as ‘Okatok’ because of the Big Rock, which they used as a reference marker in their journeys.”
Located just a few kilometres south of Calgary, Okotoks was incorporated as a village in 1893, and it didn’t become a town until June 1, 1904.
From 1904 onwards, Okotoks continued to grow, celebrating its 100th birthday in 2004. In more recent years, the town has seen a large population gain, doubling in size from 12,187 in 2004 to over 27,000 in 2014. As of 2025, the town has a population of over 33,000, according to the Alberta Regional Dashboard.
Check out the full list of cities online.
Do you live in Okotoks? What makes it so livable? Let us know in the comments!
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With files from Hanna Hett and Kendall Collins