Toronto ranks #8 in terms of livability, according to the Economist, and we’re the only city in North America to break the top ten:

We’re pretty good when it comes to green space and lack of pollution but not so good with urban sprawl and the number of cultural sites, according to a new rankings published by the Economist Intelligence Unit, a research group associated with the Economist magazine.

Toronto was ranked eighth in the world – the only North American city to break the top 10 – in a list of the top 70 cities ranked by criteria the EIU normally uses to produce its widely recognized Global City Livability Index, in which Toronto is fourth, plus a few extras such as green space, sprawl, cultural assets, and connectivity, added by architect Filippo Lovato, the winner of a competition to devise new ranking methods.

Naturally, it would be nice to be higher, but our location may have both helped and hindered us. Cities were ranked based on their distance from UNESCO World Heritage Sites, giving cities in Europe and other parts of the world a boost, but our position in the shores of Lake Ontario may have pushed up our “natural assets” rank.

Click here for the full article