We're not the healthiest—health study ranks Vancouver sixth out of 10 Canadian cities

by Craig Takeuchi on December 13th, 2016 at 2:15 PM

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While Vancouver may have a health-related reputation for its outdoor activities, body culture, and (rather infamously) yoga pants, it's actually not the healthiest city in Canada.

In fact, it looks like there are some troublesome spots that need to be worked on.

The Conference Board of Canada, an independent, non-for-profit research organization, released its first City Health Monitor study today (December 13) that evaluates and compares the health performance of 10 Canadian cities.

Each city was measured on 24 indicators, which were grouped into four categories: life satisfaction, population health, healthy lifestyle, and access to healthcare services.

The top three cities were Saskatoon, Calgary, and Winnipeg, which each received an A grade.

Saskatoon had a first-place ranking in life satisfaction and was in the top four for population health and healthy lifestyle.

Six cities received a B grade, which include Vancouver, which came in at number six in the top 10, behind Quebec City and Ottawa-Gatineau and ahead of Halifax, Edmonton, and Toronto.

Supporting Vancouver's reputation for being active and interested in wellness, the city did rank first in population health and healthy lifestyles.

Vancouver received strong, positive results in the areas of physical activity (in contrast, Toronto placed last in physical activity—so we may not be as well dressed but, yes, the yoga pants are paying off), obesity, asthma, heart disease, diabetes, mood disorders, smoking, and heavy drinking.

Weaknesses, however, appeared in the areas of healthcare service access (C grade) and life satisfaction (D grade). Vancouver scored low on the number of specialists, nursing, and midwifery personnel in the healthcare area.

Unfortunately, one city scored significantly lower than the others and received a D grade: Montreal. The city, which did not rank higher than eighth position in any category, came in last place out of the 10 Canadian cities.

The rankings and grades are as follows: