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and Housing Corp.'s annual Rental Market
Survey. Housing market observers, such as
the Royal Bank of Canada, consider a healthy
rental vacancy rate to be between 3% and
5%. Therefore, a vacancy rate of 4% received
the maximum score of 10, with cities above or
below that value scoring proportionately less.
Residential sales per 10,000
residents (10 points)
This number, from quarterly BC Assessment
data, reflects the year-to-date sales totals for
single-family and strata residential properties to
the end of September 2024. After dividing sales
totals by total city population, we multiplied that
figure by 10,000 to determine the number of sales
per 10,000 residents. We gave the highest value
10 points and scored the others accordingly.
Housing starts per 10,000 residents
(10 points)
We derived this value from the year-to-date
housing starts from Canada Mortgage and
Housing Corp.'s monthly Starts and Completions
Survey to the end of September 2024. The city
with the highest number of housing starts per
10,000 residents received a score of 10, with
the other cities scoring in relation to that.
Change in jobs per 10,000 residents
(10 points)
This figure measures the change in the employed
labour force from January to September 2024,
derived from StatsCan's monthly Labour Force
Survey. We scored the year-to-date difference
in jobs out of a maximum value of 10.
Average annual unemployment rate
(10 points)
For this indicator, we averaged unemployment
rates for each city from the first three quarters
of the year. The averages were derived from
rates reported in StatsCan's monthly Labour
Force Survey for January through September
2024. We gave the lowest average 10 points
and evaluated the others in relation to that.
Economic diversity (15 points)
This value is derived by applying the
Herfindahl–Hirschman Index—a common
means of measuring diversity—to StatsCan
employment data to determine the labour
force diversity of a city's residents. The closer
this number is to 10,000 the less diverse a
city's workforce is while a number closer
to 0 represents a more diverse workforce.
Therefore, we gave the lowest value 15 points
and scored the others in relation to that.
SIDNEY SWOON-Y
Population growth and positive
housing metrics, among other
factors, resulted in Sidney earning
top spot this year
