3 Canadian cities ranked in the world's best for work-life balance — Here's who beat Montreal

When it comes to the best cities in the world for work-life balance, Canada seems to stack up pretty well, with three cities landing in a new global ranking — but apparently, Montreal missed the memo.

This year's Global Work-Life Balance City Index by real estate site Blueground placed Ottawa — yes, the city that fun forgot — in a shocking #5 spot globally, making it the highest-ranked city in Canada for work-life balance. Toronto followed at #14, while Vancouver rounded out the trio at #22.

The ranking evaluated cities across various factors that contribute to a healthy work-life balance, like work intensity, job opportunities, time off and societal support. It also looked at aspects that contribute to residents' well-being, like affordability, outdoor spaces, safety and happiness. The result is an overall index score that highlights cities where people can strike a good balance between work and life.

According to Blueground, these rankings are designed to highlight cities that excel at creating environments where people can thrive both at work and during their personal time — making these some of the best cities to live in Canada. Blueground says it looked at 350 labour markets from around the world before narrowing its list down to 75. Apparently, Montreal didn't make the cut.

The three Canadian cities that made the cut scored pretty high in terms of overall work-life balance, with all three ranking in the top 25. Here's how they scored out of 100:

• Ottawa: 5th overall with a score of 93.2
• Toronto: 14th overall with a score of 91.3
• Vancouver: 22nd overall with a score of 87.6

A surprising win in outdoor spaces

One of Ottawa's standout features was its Outdoor Spaces, where it actually ranked #1 out of all 75 cities in the index, scoring a perfect 100. This means residents have plenty of urban green infrastructure and access to nature, which helps them unwind after a busy workday.

While it might come as a surprise that Ottawa beat Vancouver in this area, it's worth noting that this category also looked at how weather conditions might affect the use of these spaces. "This includes average temperatures, the annual number of rainy days, annual sunshine hours, and cloudlessness," it explains. Sorry, West Coasters.

But Vancouver redeemed itself with its perfect score in Air Quality — tying with Portland for the top spot — while Ottawa came in at #4 in that category with a score of 99.3.

But what about vacation days?

Despite their strong overall showings, one obstacle for all three cities was the Minimum Vacation Days category, where the Canadian cities ranked fourth-last overall with only 10 vacation days required by law in this country.

For comparison, cities like Vienna, Dubai, Paris and Rio de Janeiro top this category with 30 days each.

Top 10 overall

Here's a quick look at the top 10 cities for work-life balance overall, according to Blueground:

1. Helsinki, Finland
2. Oslo, Norway
3. Copenhagen, Denmark
4. Stockholm, Sweden
5. Ottawa, Canada
6. Sydney, Australia
7. Melbourne, Australia
8. Brussels, Belgium
9. Paris, France
10. Zürich, Switzerland

Maybe next year, Montreal!

AI tools may have been used to support the creation or distribution of this content; however, it has been carefully edited and fact-checked by a member of MTL Blog's Editorial team. For more information on our use of AI, please visit our Editorial Standards page.