As spring weather approaches and the city becomes green again, Torontonians can celebrate the fact that we live in what one report recently described as one of the greenest cities in the world. A ranking of the top cities with the most green space placed Toronto in spot number 11, out of the 100 most populous centres globally.
The report by tech company Freepik analyzed Google reviews for 2,300 green space attractions across the world’s 100 most populous cities, looking at which cities offer the most green space attractions and which cities contain the most popular green spaces. Toronto, with 34 highly-reviewed parks and other nature-based attractions, came in after number 11, just behind San Francisco and behind other green cities such as Tokyo, Japan (spot number one, with 159 reviewed green spaces), London, England (spot number two, with 78 green spaces) and Paris, France (spot number three, with 63 green spaces).
Toronto’s ranking is especially impressive when you consider our city’s square footage compared to other top spots: Toronto covers 641 square kilometres, versus 2,194 in Tokyo and 1,572 in London.
The report’s ranking of centres with the most popular green space attractions placed Toronto even higher on the list — Toronto ranked sixth for cities with the most searched for green spaces globally. Determined based on the total number of Google searches each month, Toronto saw 1,147,170 searches, coming in behind top ranking city London, with 5,182,930 searches, New York with 4,508,390 searches and Singapore, Paris and Mexico City, all close to Toronto with under two million searches a month.
The Freepik report created the two lists by looking at parks, gardens and national parks in TripAdvisor’s Nature & Parks section, removing attractions with less than 10 reviews and then collecting data on the number of Google reviews and average Google review ratings for the remaining 2,300 green spaces.
According to the City of Toronto, there are more than 1,500 parks across the city, and a World Cities Culture Forum report found that the city ranked 31st in the world based on the amount of public park lands available — 13 per cent of Toronto’s total land is dedicated to parks, gardens and other public green spaces.
For some incredible green space attractions to visit in Toronto, check out our list of the city’s best hidden gardens and green spaces.
