Vancouver placed second in the first ever Canadian YouthfulCities Index, a measure of how strongly cities attract youth, according to a report released May 10.
The city received a score of 1006.00, giving it a “C” grade of 61% and making it the second most youthful city in Canada. A similar global study on youthful cities in 2015 ranked Vancouver 17th in the world.
YouthfulCities, the Toronto-based organization that published the report, works with youth between 15-29 years old to establish 20 measurable infrastructure-related attributes that are attractive to young people and then conducts surveys in each community.
Vancouver’s relatively strong performance was most prominent in the report’s “Live” theme, where it placed first in two categories: health and environment. The city also received high scores in transit, digital access, civic engagement, diversity and safety.
Less positive was Vancouver’s performance in the “Work” theme, in which it was strong in categories like employment and financial services, but expensive and scarce housing scored the city dead last in affordability.
Perhaps surprisingly to some, Vancouver’s lowest scores were all in attributes related to culture, including in the music and film categories. The report said that even though the city is known as a film hub, there are too few film and music festivals, especially compared with Toronto and Montreal.
Food and nightlife was another sore spot for the city. Although it received marks for restaurants per capita and relatively affordable cost of fast food, it was severely hampered by alcohol; the hours that alcohol can be purchased in stores is too low, and the city’s bars shut down too early.
Overall, Vancouver remains an attractive prospect for youth, a demographic that is very willing to move to greener pastures in search of education and employment.
Only two of the 13 Canadian cities on the list, Vancouver and first-place Toronto, received a passing grade.
