"Too bad about the price of entry": Vancouver named 69th best city in the world

Resonance Consultancy recently put out a few different lists looking at urban centres across North America, and on a list of the best city’s in the world, Vancouver ranked number 69.

Resonance says that “residents, investors and visitors” need objective rankings and not just surveys, and its new series, Best Cities, is an attempt at that.

The blurb for Vancouver states, “The most Asian city outside of Asia is as smart as it is gorgeous.”

It also doesn’t shy away from addressing what every Vancouver resident knows too well: the cost of living in this city.

“Too bad about the price of entry.”

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Why Vancouver was named the 69th best city in the world

EB Adventure Photography/Shutterstock

Resonance Consultancy looked at six key categories when ranking world cities: place, product, programming, people, prosperity, and promotion.

For Vancouver, the categories it ranked pretty high were programming (63) and people (47), which branched into factors like weather, safety, nightlife, restaurants, the outdoors, and educational attainment.

Resonance suggests that it’s obvious why the world is infatuated with Vancouver, pointing to good universities and a socially minded populace as examples. Resonance points to the idea that you can leave your downtown office and hop on transit to the nearest ski hill, something uniquely Vancouver.

“And because nowhere is perfect, that geography is courtesy of massive seismic activity that has spared paradise so far. But a cost-of-housing earthquake hasn’t.”

Resonance talks about foreign investment in Vancouver and how there is little oversight on taxing outside funds.

“As such, Vancouver’s housing prices are now mostly hitched to a global context, largely decoupled from local wages. Fortunately, Silicon Valley and Seattle tech firms, coaxed by Canada’s openness to immigration from global tech talent, are paying up.”

Vancouver is sandwiched between Auckland, which was named the 68th best city in the world — which you can now take a direct flight to from Vancouver — and Santiago, Chile, called the 70th best city in the world.

London was named the best city in the world, followed by Paris and New York. Rounding out the top five were Tokyo and Dubai.

Toronto (24), Montreal (57), and Calgary (65) ranked higher than Vancouver. Edmonton didn’t make the list.

For the complete list of the world’s top 100 cities, click here.