Canada’s Best Tech Hubs To Live and Work In

In 2016 we looked into the world’s best tech startup cities to live and work in – this year we’re focusing on Canada and its rapidly growing tech ecosystem.

In the 2016 global report released by Compass and analysed by Expert Market only 3 Canadian cities were included in the study, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. This caused some people to ask, what about other Candian tech hubs? Our 2017 study went deeper into the Canadian tech startup scene across the country and found that people were right to question the exclusion of cities such as Ottawa and Calgary as they came out in first and second place respectively.

Expert Market’s Top Tech Hubs Ranking

Expert Market are not the only company looking into the most successful tech hubs in Canada, in fact a lot of the data we analysed came from the CBRE’s Research Gateway. However, what sets our ranking apart is the inclusion of quality of life factors. We understand that a city is somewhere you live, not just somewhere you work, and it’s important to remember this and consider things such as rent costs and commuting time when looking into where you should launch and grow your business.

See the full ranking of Canadian cities below and a breakdown of where they ranked for each factor further down the page. Still think we’ve missed a top Canadian tech hub? Let us know in the comments!

Individual City Rankings

The table below shows the breakdown of where each city ranked for the 4 ‘work factors’ we considered. These factors could influence how successfull your career in tech would be in each city. The 4 data sets include; Total employment in the tech industry, average wages across tech jobs, the growth rate for tech salaries from 2010-2015, and the gender balance across tech employment.

The next table looks at the 3 ‘quality of life factors’ in this study. These are things that could affect your financial stability as well as your overall happiness in each city. The 3 factors deemed most important in this are; Cost of living, average rent of a 1 bedroom apartment in the city centre and the average commute time.