New Westminster is the most livable city in mainland B.C., according to a recent ranking — despite earning a failing grade for the cost of living.
The AreaVibes website, which provides “livability scores” for cities in Canada and the U.S., has released a ranking of its Best Places to Live in B.C. New Westminster placed third.
New Westminster earned an overall livability score of 85/100, just slightly behind the Greater Victoria communities of Oak Bay, at 88, and Sidney, at 86.
It placed well ahead of other areas of Metro Vancouver, with Langley next in seventh (score: 81), Port Coquitlam in 11th (80) and Delta coming in at number 14 (80). Surrey came in at number 18 (79) and Vancouver at number 20 (78).
The site assigns scores to municipalities in nine categories: amenities, commute, cost of living, crime, employment, health and safety, housing, schools, and user ratings.
Great amenities, poor cost of living: How it breaks down
- New Westminster scored highly in several categories, with A+ rankings for amenities, commute, health, schools and user ratings.
- New West earned a B+ for employment.
- It earned a B- in housing, with a B+ for the price of housing but a D+ for home affordability (based on home price to income ratio).
- New West received poor scores in just two categories: crime and cost of living.
- Its overall crime score was C-, with its violent crime score ranked as a C+ and its property crime score at D-.
- Its worst score was a failing grade, an F, in cost of living.
You can read more and find out how livability scores work by checking out the AreaVibes site.
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📢 SOUND OFF: Do you agree? Is New Westminster a livable city? What changes would you like to see to improve its livability? What are your most and least favourite parts of living in New West? Share your thoughts — send us a letter.
