Canadians' Choice of City to Live In

Out of a dozen major Canadian cities, Vancouver remains the most popular when Canadians are asked which city they would prefer to live in if they had the option. One in four Canadians say they would choose to live here if they were able to maintain their current standard of living. This west coast city's appeal, however, has waned since the beginning of the decade.

Toronto and Calgary hold the second and third spots respectively on Canadians' list of desired cities to live in, and both have won a few more fans in recent years.

These research findings are from two separate Angus Reid Group/The Globe and Mail/CTV polls conducted by telephone between May 12^th and 27^th, 1998 among a combined representative cross-section of 3,016 Canadian adults.

The poll highlights:

• When asked which of 12 selected cities they would choose to live in if they were able to enjoy the same standard of living as they do now, one in four (24%) surveyed Canadians picked Vancouver. This keeps Vancouver on top of the list, but is down from the 30 percent recorded the last time this question was asked back in March 1991. (Table 1A) Vancouver's 6-point drop nationally is largely driven by this city's diminished appeal among residents of Alberta (14% chose Vancouver, only half as many as in the 1991 survey) and Manitoba/Saskatchewan (11%, less than half).
• Toronto came in second with 15 percent of the votes, up 4 points since seven years ago. Calgary placed third at 12 percent.
• Ten percent opted for Montrйal (10%). Close to one in ten chose Quйbec City (8%) and Ottawa (8%).
• The remaining cities were chosen less often: Edmonton (5%); Halifax (5%); Saskatoon (3%); Winnipeg (2%); St. John's (2%); and Regina (1%).
• Vancouverites have the greatest "attachment" to their own city: fully eight in 10 (82%) Vancouver residents surveyed chose that city. A solid majority of residents of Calgary (73%), Ottawa (68%) and Quйbec City (62%) also selected their respective cities, with more modest majorities recorded among residents of Edmonton (56%), Toronto (53%, up from 41% in 1991) and Montrйal (53%, up from 46% in the previous survey). The lowest level of attachment was recorded among Winnipeggers (38%). (See Table 1.) (No separate analysis can be done for the smaller cities due to smaller sample sizes.)
• In terms of city preferences across the regions, moving from west to east across the country: (Table 2)
  • Vancouver is the No.1 choice among most British Columbians (61%, although this is a 10-point decrease since the 1991 sounding thanks to an increase in Calgary's appeal).
  • Across the Rockies into Alberta, a large plurality now opt for Calgary (41%), with Edmonton further back at 27 percent. Both Albertan cities are more popular on home turf than they were in 1991.
  • In Manitoba/Saskatchewan, there is a tie between Calgary and Saskatoon (25% and 23% respectively), followed by Winnipeg (17%). Vancouver is fourth here now, compared to its top spot seven years ago.
  • Further east into Ontario, the city of choice is Toronto (34%, up 10 points), though one in four Ontarians would rather live in Vancouver (24%).
  • >In the province of Quйbec, there is essentially a first-place tie between Montrйal (34%) and Quйbec City (31%).
  • Finally, among Atlantic Canadians, a plurality of one in three chose Halifax (36%), followed by St. John's (15%).

These research findings are from two separate Angus Reid Group/The Globe and Mail/CTV polls conducted by telephone between May 12^th and 27^th, 1998 among a combined representative cross-section of 3,016 Canadian adults.

These data were statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the 1996 Census data.

With a national sample of 3,016, one can say with 95 percent certainty that the results are within ±1.8 percentage points of what they would have been had the entire adult Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within cities and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. For example, smaller cities with a sample size of roughly 100 will have a margin of error of ±10 percent.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

John Wright
Senior Vice-President
Angus Reid Group
(416) 324-2900