Toronto is the 2nd most attractive place to work and live in, just behind Barcelona. Paris ranks 3rd, Madrid is 4th, London ranks 8th as per the Prosperity Score card 2010 released by the Toronto Board of Trade.
Toronto ranks 2nd out of 24 cities worldwide, making it the choice for new immigrants because of high mix of population, strong and consistent population growth, low homicide rate and an affordable cost of living. 47% of Toronto’s population is foreign-born in comparison to let’s say New York with 28%, or Sydney with 34% or San Francisco with 29%.
These are also some of the reasons why Toronto is the favourite destination of new immigrants in Canada:
- Toronto ranks 7th in the scorecard for cities with at least bachelor’s degrees (30.6% of the population having a bachelors degree).
-Toronto ranks 6th with 68 teachers per 1000 school-age students with Montreal (75 teachers) and Vancouver (73 teachers) ranking 1st and 2nd out of the 17 cities rated. Toronto has a 1.9 homicides per 100,000 people ranking 4th out of 15 cities. Hong Kong is the best with 0.5 homicides and Montreal is 2nd best city with 1.5. In use and availability of non-auto transit (public transit, cycling or walking) Toronto comes 12th out of 21 cities with 28.8% of the Toronto residents choosing non-auto options to commute in the city. The best being Hong Kong with 89% of commuters travel to work using public transit, cycling or walking.
-In affordable housing, Toronto ranks 5th when compared with 12 cities within US and Canada. With Dallas coming on top, followed by Calgary. Toronto ranks 6th out of 22 cities on cost of living. Remember the lower the cost of living the more attractive it is to live in. Seattle comes at the top, followed by Montreal. London ranks 21st, Paris is 17th, New York is 16th, Calgary and Vancouver are 4th and 5th respectively.
-Toronto has 6.6 million international visitors making it the 5th highest number of international visitors out of the 23 metros. London is the leading metro with 15.3 million, followed by Hong Kong (12.1 million). Vancouver (3.1 million) and Montreal (2.7 million) also make the top 10.
Toronto is a global city and deserves its multicultural, dynamic, immigrant loving status.
Source: Scorecard on Prosperity 2010, Toronto Board of Trade.
