British Columbians want to move to this spot in Canada and we are shocked

If you could move anywhere in Canada, where would you go? New data says that British Columbians picked Calgary as their number one spot, and we are a bit confused.

Remitly.com has made its annual rankings of the top spots in the world people want to move to, and they broke down the numbers for us here in Canada.

Nationally, British Columbians want to stay fairly close to home, with Calgary and Edmonton as their top picks for cities.

Toronto, Ottawa, and Winnipeg rounded out the top rankings for domestic choices.

remitly.com

Turns out Calgary is really, really popular, as it was also the top choice for Canadians in other provinces.

Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and PEI had Calgary as their number one online query as well. That “Alberta is Calling” campaign seems to have worked!

Calgary gets high marks for its affordability, lower taxes, and cheaper rental market than Vancouver and Toronto. Along with its energy sector, Calgary also boasts a pretty impressive technology and entrepreneur scene, which attracts lots of young professionals across the country.

But people in Calgary want to move to Vancouver the most, so there’s some consolation.

Maybe they were convinced after they read “Here are six reasons to move to Vancouver from Alberta” last week?

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When it comes to international choices, British Columbians went a bit warmer:

1. Dubai
2. Los Angeles
3. Sardinia
4. New York City
5. Singapore

Dubai wasn’t only popular for British Columbians but was also the favourite globally in Remitly.com’s data.

“Using a similar methodology to our previous study, we analysed Google search volumes for the phrase ‘move to [city]’ for 164 countries around the world, and created an overall ranking based entirely on how many countries prefer a move to a specific city above all others,” the company said in a release this week.

remitly.com

Turning stateside, Vancouver was named not once but twice for a non-US city each state wants to move to the most.

People in Oregon and Oklahoma chose Vancouver as their favourite destination. Oregon, we can understand, but Oklahoma?

That might be even more confusing than Calgary.

What do you think of the top choices? Let us know in the comments.