Best cities to live in North America

Overview

Vancouver tops our ranking of best cities to live in north america at 7.0/10, just ahead of Denver and San Diego. There's no shortage of blog posts ranking cities from personal impressions. Best cities to live in North America takes a different approach: the same seven-criterion scorecard, applied identically to every city, so the ranking below is reproducible rather than anecdotal. Our global livability score, limited to cities in North America. This narrows our 303-city database down to North America and ranks that regional set by the same equal-weighted livability score used everywhere else on the site. Guadalajara stands out as the most affordable option in this set (8/10 on cost of living), which is useful context if budget matters more to you than the overall ranking order suggests. Just outside the top three, Calgary, Washington DC, Montreal round out a competitive upper half — worth a look if your specific circumstances (a partner's job, a language you already speak, an existing visa route) rule out the leaders. This is the right starting point if you know you want to stay in North America but haven't yet decided which single factor matters most. Scroll down for the full table — each city name links to its detailed scorecard if you want to dig into the individual numbers.

Full ranking

Curious how the top two stack up criterion by criterion? Compare Vancouver vs Denver directly →

Methodology

Cities are scored equally across all seven criteria — no single factor dominates — then limited to North America so you're comparing regional options directly rather than against cities you may have already ruled out geographically. Want different priorities? Set your own weights in the recommender.

Understanding the criteria

All seven criteria — cost of living, safety, environment, transport, climate, healthcare and internet — count equally here, so a city needs to be solid across the board rather than exceptional at any one thing to rank near the top.

Tips for using this ranking

• →If one criterion clearly matters more to you than the others, the single-criterion regional rankings (linked below) will serve you better than this blended list.
• →Cities in the middle of this ranking are often better value than the top 2-3 once cost of living is factored back in — worth a look before assuming higher is always better.

Who this ranking is for

This ranking is most useful for Budget-conscious movers — movers for whom affordability outweighs every other factor, Safety-first movers — people relocating somewhere unfamiliar who weigh personal safety above all and Balanced movers — people without a single dominant priority, weighing all criteria evenly. If none of those match your situation, the recommender tool lets you set your own weights instead of relying on any preset list.

Strengths & limitations of this ranking

Frequently asked questions

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