On the one hand, it's still a long way from a first place finish.
On the other hand, it's still a far better showing for North Battleford than last year in the annual Money Sense magazine survey of the Best Places to Live.
North Battleford ranked 88th in the annual survey for 2014, far better than the 150th-place showing from 2013, but worse than 2012, when it ranked 45th.
The 2014 numbers place North Battleford fifth among Saskatchewan cities, behind Regina, Saskatoon, Moose Jaw and Lloydminster. Regina ranked ninth overall, Saskatoon 13th, Moose Jaw 66th and Lloydminster 71st.
North Battleford finished ahead of Yorkton, Estevan and Swift Current. The showing by Prince Albert was particularly dismal: 184th out of 201 cities.
When compared only to other smaller cities, North Battleford finished 49th overall in that category.
Topping the list as best place to live in Canada was the Edmonton-area suburb of St. Albert, Alta., population 64,377.
Last year's top community, Calgary, dropped to second. Strathcona, Alta. finished third, while Ottawa and Burlington, Ont. finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
St. Albert also topped the "Best Small-sized City" category, with Strathcona second there as well.
In general, it was a good showing for smaller communities in the ranking and a not so good year for bigger cities, as two-thirds of the largest cities dropped in the rankings in 2014.
It was also a particularly bad year for British Columbia communities. North Battleford's middle-of-the-pack ranking put it four places ahead of Kelowna and also ahead of B.C. communities Fort St. John, Burnaby, Terrace, Courtenay, Vernon, Nanaimo, Cranbrook, Penticton, Prince George, Langley and several others down the list.
The community finishing dead last in the survey in the entire country was none other than Port Alberni, B.C., in 201st place.
The full list and rankings can be found at http://www.moneysense.ca/canadas-best-places-to-live-2014-full-ranking.
North Battleford scored well with 5.30 per cent growth and a low 6.2 per cent unemployment, did well in housing affordability and scored near the top when it came to sunny weather days. But it was dragged down by low numbers for average-household income ($70,616) and average discretionary income ($35,220.36), by its large amount of cold weather days and by its infamous worst-in-Canada crime severity index showing.
Still, the overall result was a 62-place improvement from last year.
The Money Sense ranking uses 34 different factors including unemployment rate, average household income, average discretionary income, average house prices, property tax, new cars, total rainfall, crime severity, number of medical offices, those employed in health care and those employed in arts and recreation. According to Money Sense, the greatest weight is given to categories such as housing prices, employment and wealth in determining the ranking.
