Estevan slid outside the top 100 best places to live in Canada according to one of the country’s financial magazines.
The list, compiled annually by MoneySense Magazine and released last week, evaluates 209 cities across the country, rating each on its unemployment rates, access to health care and crime severity indexes among many other areas. Estevan ranked 128, a drop from 95 last year.
The magazine pools its information from various authorities, like the Canadian Medical Association to determine doctors in an area, and the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics to tally a city’s crime rate.
According to the magazine’s reports and rankings editor, Mark Brown, “While we can’t gauge many of the elements that people enjoy in their cities, the nearness of family, the friendliness of neighbours or even great sunsets, we have measured what can be measured and compared what can be compared from towns and cities across our provinces and territories. To identify the Best Places to Live in Canada we rank each community across 34 separate categories to get a detailed picture of what life is like in each community.”
The rankings were compiled from a number of categories that received varying weight: wealth, 28 per cent; demographics, 17 per cent; commute 11 per cent; weather, 10 per cent; and other, which included crime, health care amenities and culture was weighted at 35 per cent.
Estevan benefitted from low unemployment, high incomes and steady population growth. As it has been in the past, the Energy City’s rating was hurt by the crime rate, access to health care, lack of affordable housing and ease of walking, biking and available public transit.
According to the MoneySense numbers, Estevan still struggles with its physician availability. Though the doctor situation has improved since 2010, Estevan has about 0.6 doctors for everyone 1,000 people. Many other cities, including all other Saskatchewan communities canvassed for the report have two or more doctors to service the same number of people.
While Estevan’s crime rate has declined by about 5.4 per cent from five years ago, the crime rate remains high at 12,716 per 100,00 people. Meanwhile the top city in the country to live, Boucherville, QC, has a rate of just 4,618, and other cities, like Burlington, ON, show a rate of about 2,300. North Battleford, however, has a rate nearing 42,000 per 100,000 people.
The top Saskatchewan city on the list, Regina, showed a significant decline from the ninth spot last year, down to 44.
The numbers for Estevan
Population:14,421
Population Change (2010 To 2015):9.2 per cent
Estimated Unemployment Rate:5.04 per cent
Median Household Income:$94,872
Average Household Discretionary Income:$58,711.55
Average Household Net Worth:$574,904
Average Value Of Primary Real Estate:$410,334
Average Time To Buy A Home:3.4 years
Property Tax:2.77 per cent
Average Property Tax:$3,140
Average Property Tax As A Percentage Of Average Income:2.6 per cent
Average Income Tax for Individual Earning $50,000:$10,071
Vehicles 2012 Model Year Or Newer:19.4 per cent
Travel To Work By Walking:3.7 per cent
Travel To Work By Bicycle:0.1 per cent
Total Annual Rainfall:331.56 mm
Days With Precipitation Greater Than Or Equal To 0.2 mm:116.4
Days With Daily Min Temperature Greater Than 0°C:169.2
Days With Daily Max Temperature Greater Than 20°C:113.5
Days Above 24°C:12.42
Crime Rate – 5-Year Change:-5.4 per cent
Crime Rate Per 100,000:12,716.4
Crime Severity Index:101.8
Violent Crime Severity Index:77.9
Owned Homes:75.6 per cent
Rented Homes:24.4 per cent
Employed In Health Care:4.1 per cent
Offices Of Doctors Of Medicine Per ’000:0.14
Doctors Per ’000:0.6
Employed In Arts And Rec:0.9 per cent
Source, www.moneysense.ca
