RESIDENTIAL SALES
PER 10,000
POPULATION
(10)
HOUSING STARTS
PER 10,000
POPULATION
(10)
CHANGE IN JOBS
PER 10,000
POPULATION
(10)
AVERAGE ANNUAL
UNEMPLOYMENT
RATE (10)
ECONOMIC
DIVERSITY
(15)
115.3 22.8 3.4% 5.53% 782
80.9 42.3 -0.3% 5.79% 750
114.5 49.4 1.9% 5.48% 804
127.5 13.2 1.2% 5.74% 1,160
67.7 66.2 -0.3% 5.79% 795
81.4 57.5 -0.3% 5.79% 736
96.3 42.5 6.2% 5.79% 800
100 19 3.4% 5.53% 790
130.2 33.4 1.2% 5.74% 779
128.5 70.9 -0.3% 5.79% 777
112.4 44.2 -0.3% 5.79% 761
98.1 16.9 -0.3% 5.79% 722
64.4 19.1 -0.3% 5.79% 733
85.8 57.4 -0.3% 5.79% 747
70.5 67.5 -0.3% 5.79% 766
145.4 58.8 -8.6% 6.09% 770
111.6 32 2.6% 4.28% 933
81.2 21 -0.3% 5.79% 738
122.4 31.9 1.9% 5.48% 835
102.5 7.5 1.1% 6.46% 849
123.8 15.6 1.1% 6.46% 832
86.9 114.5 0.7% 6.44% 975
116.9 44.4 0.7% 6.44% 875
123.8 0 -8.6% 6.09% 835
82.5 3.9 1.9% 5.48% 957
27
B C B U S I N E S S . C A
A P R I L / M AY 2 0 2 5
job creation to real estate activity. With the
help of our research partner, Environics
Analytics, we added in proprietary data
around these cities' economic diversity,
household financial vulnerability and resi-
dents' sense of belonging. All told, we took
nine different criteria into account, giving
each city a relative score on each.
It's worth noting that our methodology
is designed to exaggerate the differences
between the municipalities' vital signs
to help rank them. In the grand scheme
of things, the prospects for getting a job
or starting a business in No. 1-ranked
Sidney or No. 50 Quesnel are not so dis-
parate as the scoring system would have
them appear.
Nonetheless, the exercise gives a sense
of which places on the map are thriving and
which, for whatever reasons, may be taking
a pause. Similar to our 2024 survey, Van-
couver Island communities dominate the
upper echelons of the list. Capital Region
municipalities Sidney, Langford and Cen-
tral Saanich took all three podium posi-
tions, while Nanaimo (p.36) rose 21 spots
and landed in the top 10 for the first time
in five years. That's not hard to explain:
ever since the COVID-19 pandemic and the
rise of remote work, the Island has been
a favoured destination of newly footloose
workers leaving Vancouver and other high-
priced cities for lifestyle and cost-of-living
reasons. We might also expect the home
of the provincial government to fare well
when an outsized portion of province-wide
job creation is coming from the public sec-
tor, as it has over the past few years.
One trend more evident in this year's
survey than in the past is the relatively
poor showing by Metro Vancouver
municipalities. The obvious reason is that
employment growth turned negative in the
region in 2024, which had ripple effects on
the unemployment rate, property sales
and household finances. By contrast, the
job market has remained buoyant on the
Island and in the Fraser and Okanagan
valleys. Northern cities and towns were
once again handicapped by the wind-
down in energy megaprojects and the
longer-term challenges facing the forest
industry. The biggest gainer over the past
BEST
CITIES
FOR WORK
THE
