The World’s Best Cities Were Ranked & Toronto Beat Montreal By A LOT — Here’s Why

A new best cities in the world ranking dropped and a slew of Canadian spots made the cut — with Toronto leading the pack. Despite Montreal being a cultural hub with loads of must-try restaurants, festivals galore and a generous dash of joie de vivre, it still managed to fall far behind Toronto's placing.

Resonance, a brand and marketing consulting firm in the tourism and real estate sector, based the 2023 World's Best Cities Report on a range of statistical data and consumer reviews, looking at everything from the number of sunny days to the number of highly-reviewed restaurants to the number of Instagram hashtags. The six core categories the report is built from are place, product, programming, people, prosperity and promotion.

Toronto managed to score 24th overall thanks to the city's economic growth, immigration and global investments. "With almost half of its population foreign-born, Toronto’s top 25 finish this year is powered by diversity and education, with its eponymous university, U of T, ranking #9 globally and its residents finishing #20 for the planet’s most educated," the report said.

Montreal was the second Canadian city to pop up on the ranking, landing in the 57th spot overall. The report highlighted Montreal's income equality and culture along with a growing tech industry that has attracted record foreign investment. The ranking also emphasized Montreal's creativity when it comes to turning major streets into "outdoor hangouts," with loads of art, music and shopping along with vastly increasing bike lanes.

"Today, Montreal’s #22-ranked Culture is palpable with a smouldering indie music scene, digital placemaking and playful creativity on every street corner (or so it seems). The city has a head for innovation, too, with its iconic McGill University finishing #27 globally and the Université de Montréal becoming a hot spot of the artificial intelligence kind," the ranking said.

The longstanding (mostly) friendly feud between Montreal and Toronto, fueled by cultural, linguistic, and sports differences, has built a passionate and enduring rivalry between the two cities. Although Toronto won this particular ranking, if I may lapse briefly into subjective analysis here, I will say that Montrealers know in their heart of hearts that we will always be number one, regardless of what data-driven reports have to say.

Calgary (65), Vancouver (69), and Ottawa (96) were the only other Canadian cities to be included in the ranking.

Wondering which other worldwide spots made the cut? Here's the top 10 of the world's best cities in 2023:

1. London, United Kingdon
2. Paris, France
3. New York, United States
4. Tokyo, Japan
5. Dubai, United Arab Emirates
6. Barcelona, Spain
7. Rome, Italy
8. Madrid, Spain
9. Singapore, Singapore
10. Amsterdam, Netherlands

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.