Toronto ranks in top quarter for best cities for millennials

The city comes in at number 24, with Amsterdam at the top.

Thestar.com
April 18, 2017
By May Warren

Where millennials are concerned, Toronto is number 24.

In a new list of the best cities for people aged 18-34, Toronto ranks in the top quarter globally, according to information compiled by apartment listing aggregator NestPick.

Each city is given a score out of 10 in several different categories from Internet speed to tourism, to come up with an overall ranking.

Coming in at No. 1 is Amsterdam, the Netherlands, with an overall score of 108.8. Lima, Peru, is last at 52.

Toronto has an overall score of 93.10. Here’s a closer look at how we stack up when it comes to young people.

High on immigration and equality

Toronto did well on immigration tolerance (9.25), its highest score, and gender equality (8.10). Ottawa and Montreal also did well on immigration. Dublin had the best overall score.

Toronto only got 5.4 on LGBT friendliness. Vancouver, which was number 10 overall and the best Canadian city, beat us on this one at 9.4.

Low on nightlife

Although many actual Toronto millennials would disagree, the city’s lowest score was for nightlife (1), calculated by looking at the number of clubs and their opening times. The highest scorers in this category were Berlin, Germany, Paris, France, and Cologne, Germany. We tied with Vancouver in this category.

We did do a bit better on the Beer ranking (3.8) and festival scene (6.80). But Vancouver had a much better festival score at 9.6.

Housing dragging us down

Whether facing rising rents, trying to save a down payment for the ever-illusive dream home or just having trouble finding any decent apartment in the city, this is a sore spot for many Toronto millennials.

Toronto got 2.8 in this category, far from the top scorer, Guadalajara, Mexico (10), but better than west coast competitor Vancouver at 1.6. Uber-expensive San Francisco clocked last in this category at 0.10.

On food affordability, we did better at 5.7.

Mediocre on Transit

Toronto ranks in the middle of the pack on transport at 5.0. Vancouver does better at 7.9. But no one can beat Oslo, Norway, which earned a perfect 10.

Health could be better

We’re not a top scorer on health, at only 4.25, based on data from the World Health Organization. But Vancouver’s not beating us - it has the same score.

Lyon, France, rates the best, and Cape Town, South Africa, the worst.

We did better on access to contraception (8), tying with Vancouver.

Employment needs improvement

Toronto didn’t fare great on employment (3.7), which was calculated based on unemployment data from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Vancouver did better at 6.3. The best is Bangkok, Thailand.

Seville, Spain, still recovering from the 2010 Euro crisis, did the worst.

Excelling at the start-up scene, and doing well on other tech stuff

Toronto did OK on Internet speed (6.10) but our start-up scene was excellent (8.8).

But Vancouver fared better at 9.50. San Francisco had a perfect 10 on startups.