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Here's why Montreal ranked in the top 50 of the world's best cities in 2020

Here's what the annual ranking from Best Cities has to say about Montreal and its place as the 41st best city in the world.

JP Karwacki
Written by
JP Karwacki
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Best Cities, an annual ranking of the world's top destinations for living, working and investing from the Vancouver and New York-based advisor Resonance Consultancy, has named Montreal the 41st best city in the world out of 100. It moved up four places from 45 the previous year.

Other Canadian cities include Toronto (13), Vancouver (34), Calgary (47), and Ottawa (67).

Deemed one of the most comprehensive ranking systems of its kind by Bloomberg, "the ranking evaluates each qualifying city across the six pillars of place equity: Place, Product, Programming, People, Prosperity, and Promotion," the ranking website's explanation reads.

What they had to say about Montreal:

"Outgoing, two-cheek-embracing, convivial-above-all-Montreal took a hard, early hit as the pandemic struck. Deaths in residences for the elderly exposed the ugly underbelly of an underfunded industry and brought about a reckoning for both governments and families in terms of the meaning of care. Montreal’s global ranking of 184 out of 263 in the number of coronavirus cases per million residents put the city at the head of Canada’s outbreak and on a par with cities like Seattle.

"Despite the cancellation of iconic programming like the Grand Prix, the city acted swiftly to turn major streets into creatively-styled outdoor hangouts with art and music, and vastly increased bike lanes. The summer of 2020, as ever in the city, was deliriously enjoyable and tragically short—not for nothing does Montreal rank 25th in the world for the number of quality activities, shows and events.

"Montreal also ranks 31st for its number of foreign-born citizens, and 30th for the percentage of residents with higher education. Universities are highly rated—highly respected McGill climbed in the rankings—and Université de Montréal has become a hot spot of the Artificial Intelligence kind. Montreal’s growing tech expertise hasn’t put the city out of reach: it hit #22 in our Gini coefficient ranking for inequality. But it’s becoming increasingly clear: the city’s future may be more dependent on its growing brains than on its considerable heart." — Best Cities

Here's the top 20 for the World's Best Cities in 2020:

1. London, England
2. New York City, United States
3. Paris, France
4. Moscow, Russia
5. Tokyo, Japan
6. Dubai, United Arab Emirates
7. Singapore, Singapore
8. Barcelona, Spain
9. Los Angeles, United States
10. Madrid, Spain
11. Rome, Italy
12. Chicago, United States
13. Toronto, Canada
14. San Francisco, United States
15. Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
16. St. Petersburg, Russia
17. Amsterdam, Netherlands
18. Berlin, Germany
19. Prague, Czech Republic
20. Washington D.C., United States

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