A new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives ranks Vancouver as the fifth-best city in Canada to be a woman. The region moves up four spots from its ninth-place ranking in last year's study and nine spots from its 13th-place ranking in 2015.

Titled “The Best and Worst Places to be a Woman in Canada 2017”, the report compares women's economic and personal security, women's access to health and education, and leadership positions available to women in the country’s 25 largest cities.

Author Kate McInturff, a senior researcher at the CCPA, evaluated data such as women’s employment rates; the highest level of education completed by women; the number of women elected to civic office; and the life expectancy of women to complete the study.

Vancouver ranked fifth overall, ahead of major areas like Toronto, Calgary, and Montreal, despite the city’s women’s employment rates and incomes falling below the national averages. The wage gap is also worse than it was five years ago in the city: women now earn only 69 percent of the average male salary.

However, women in Vancouver are more likely to have completed high-school, college, or university programs than their male counterparts. Vancouver also boasts a fair number of women holding positions in politics. According to the paper, they make up 40 percent of elected officials in the city. In addition, women serve 33 percent of management roles in the region, which McInturff writes is “rare”.

In terms of health and personal security, women in Vancouver have the highest life expectancy in the country, though, like in the rest of Canada, sexual-assault and domestic-violence cases remain criminally underreported.

Victoria, the only city included where more women are employed than men and where women hold almost half of elected positions, ranked first in the study for the second year in a row. Windsor received the poorest grade due to its lack of women in office and managerial positions, and the fact that women are more likely to be living below the poverty line than men.

Other B.C. cities evaluated were Kelowna and Abbotsford-Mission. They ranked 13th and 14th, respectively. Additional Canadian cities were excluded from the report due to a lack of available figures.

The majority of data analyzed comes from Statistics Canada, which the CCPA notes does not consider non-binary individuals. “Efforts are underway to see a category other than male/female in the next census”, McInturff states.

The paper also mentions Women Transforming Cities, a local nonprofit that works to empower and engage women, and increase their participation in municipal governments.

“Both local and national women’s organizations are uniquely positioned to understand the needs of those they serve and support,” writes McInturff. “They are also among the smallest and most underfunded organizations in the non-profit sector in Canada. Yet, the research is clear: they are the single most effective means to building better public policy and better lives for women.”

The full ranking of cities in the CCPA's “The Best and Worst Places to be a Woman in Canada 2017” study is as follows:

1. Victoria
2. Gatineau
3. Hamilton
4. Kingston
5. Vancouver
6. Québec City
7. St. John’s
8. Sherbrooke
9. Halifax
10. Toronto
11. Ottawa
12. London
13. Kelowna
14. Abbotsford-Mission
15. Montréal
16. St. Catharines-Niagara
17. Winnipeg
18. Edmonton
19. Saskatoon
20. Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo
21. Regina
22. Calgary
23. Barrie
24. Oshawa
25. Windsor