People who live Toronto may have a reputation for complaining about Toronto, but love it or hate it, we all have our reasons for staying put.
But what does the rest of the world think of us, you may wonder?
New rankings that came out over the course of this year shed some light, though we perhaps shouldn’t take them all to heart. Here are just a few.
Toronto is one of the least livable cities
The most recent ranking came from The Globe & Mail, which assessed places across the country for livability. Based on things like Toronto’s economy, amenities, housing, safety, healthcare, transportation, education, community, climate and demographics, T.O. somehow placed 82 out of 100 in Canada — pretty dismally for the nation’s biggest city.
Toronto offers a good quality of life — but there are some exceptions
Seemingly contradictory to the above, a separate report from well-known consulting firm Mercer purported that Toronto is the 12th-best city for quality of living in 2024, out of a whopping 241, deeming it a “global economic hub” with a “strong commitment to inclusivity and diversity.”
But, the report only looked at quality of living for one particular demographic: people transplanted here for work from their home city.
A separate release some months earlier in the year put Toronto at number 10 on a list for another narrow, but different group: Millennials.
Toronto is the best city for culture lovers
The inclusivity and diversity lauded by Mercer is part of what put Toronto on Adobe Express’s list of best cities for travellers who love culture.
Our number of cultural institutions, from theatres, museums and galleries to libraries, historic places and live music events, earned us number 14 in the world and 3 in North America.
Toronto is one of the worst cities for traffic
Being that T.O.’s traffic made so many headlines in 2024, it’s no surprise that the city ended up placing first in Canada, eighth in Americas and 17th in the world for places with the most brutal congestion.
Transportation analytics company Inrix estimated in the summer that local drivers encounter an enormous 63 hours per year in delays due to gridlock.
Toronto is one of the most beautiful cities from above
One of the more unique rankings of this year was one of the most objectively attractive places from in the air, which was created by showing people photographs of various places and tracking their eye movements. Toronto came in 12th place.
Toronto is a top 5 food city in North America
Okay, okay… so this ranking isn’t from a trusted authority, but it is from a ridiculously famous TikToker known for reviewing food across the U.S.
Keith Lee, who visited Toronto earlier in 2024, put us in the top three places in his food tour at the time and proceeded to drop our name in his recent list of the five best food cities he’s ever been to after New Orleans, Houston and Chicago.
Toronto is home to the best university in multiple categories
U of T is regularly recognized as one of the best institutions of higher learning on the globe, and 2024 was no different.
This year, the school topped reputable lists of the world’s most sustainable universities, most beautiful universities, most likely to produce employable grads, landed close to number one for most research output, and rubbed shoulders with Ivy League academies in multiple surveys of best and most prestigious universities overall.
Toronto is the worst city for pests
Sorry to say, but for another year in a row, Toronto took the titles for both the bed-buggiest and most rat-infested city in Canada.
Other rankings that we can boast or hang our heads about in 2024: 13th wealthiest city in the world but fifth-cheapest place to experience Michelin-star dining, and home to some of the best bars and most breathtaking attractions (and also the most disappointing in Canada).
Failing to break the top 10 in any category in Oxford Economics’ respected Global Cities Index this year also hurt, as did getting ranked below Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa, Vancouver and London, Ontario for sexiest cities in the country.
