Index evaluates 27 cities based on factors
including job availability, cost of living, public
health, sustainability measures, and equity & inclusion
practices
TORONTO, May 11, 2021 /CNW/ - Today, Youthful Cities
announced the results of its 2021 Urban Work Index, providing
insight into how Canada's urban
centres rank for youth. Presented by RBC Future Launch, the Index
ranks 27 Canadian cities' performance across 76 urban work
indicators spanning 11 distinct topics: City Economy, Climate
Change, Cost of Living, Digital Access, Education & Training,
Entrepreneurial Spirit, Equity & Inclusion, Good Youth Jobs,
Income Generation, Public Health, and Public Transportation.
Since its inaugural release in 2019, the Index has evolved based
on feedback from youth from coast to coast to coast. It now
captures how a city's attributes can help young people fulfill
their professional and personal ambitions, including economic
factors. New urban work indicators include a city's level of
climate education, anti-discrimination scales, and the likeliness
of local economy to automate.
Cities were ranked using publicly-available data and had the
potential to score up to a possible 956 points. Vancouver (using data from 14 of the largest
municipalities which make up Metro Vancouver) was found to be the
top-ranked city in the country, scoring 623.66 points. Through the
ranking, larger cities were generally rated to be better places to
work overall. However, each city saw ratings that reflected unique
areas of strength and opportunities for growth. The cities ranked
as follows:
1)
Vancouver (623.66)
2)
Hamilton (541.23)
3)
Edmonton (538.96)
4)
Victoria (538.38)
5)
Montreal (532.22)
6)
Calgary (530.47)
7)
Ottawa/Gatineau (530.40)
8)
Toronto (525.91)
9)
Quebec City (503.92)
|
10) Mississauga (501.05)
11) Halifax (496.42)
12) Kelowna (494.48)
13) Winnipeg (486.21)
14) Kitchener-Waterloo
(485.48)
15) Sudbury (481.03)
16) Saskatoon (479.36)
17) Lethbridge (474.13)
18) Brampton (468.84)
|
19) Laval
(466.55)
20) Yellowknife (461.87)
21) Oshawa (460.16)
22) Regina (458.57)
23) Charlottetown (446.22)
24) St.
John's (434.91)
25) London (434.16)
26) Moncton (411.74)
27) Fredericton (395.27)
|
The primary source of data for the Index is the Youthful Cities
Pivot Hub. Launched in March 2020, it
is the culmination of the Pivot 2020, a COVID-19 youth employment
project, funded by the Government of Canada and led by Youthful Cities,
Simon Fraser University's Morris J.
Wosk Centre for Dialogue, and the Canadian Council for Youth
Prosperity. More than 1,200 young people from 27 Canadian cities
were employed as urban researchers in the fall of 2020 to collect
public data on the included cities – and concurrently conduct
surveys and interviews with over 3,000 youth (aged 15-29) to inform
the measurement of topics and indicators. In addition, Youthful
Cities and RBC's Thought Leadership team partnered to structure the
new topics and indicators – resulting in 15,769 total points of
data contributing to the 2021 Urban Work Index rankings.
"The ambition of RBC Future Launch is to empower Canadian youth
for the jobs of tomorrow," said Mark
Beckles, Vice-President, Social Impact & Innovation,
RBC. "We are proud to support the Urban Work Index, expanding and
continuing our partnership with Youthful Cities. The Index is a
helpful tool and we are confident more young people will gain the
insights needed to make informed decisions on where they choose to
live and work, based on themes they have highlighted as important.
These findings also help to validate the community investments RBC
is already making and begin to inform us on where more support is
needed."
"COVID-19 has made the future of work as a young adult seem even
more precarious than usual," said Robert
Barnard, Co-Founder of Youthful Cities. "As governments and
corporations are getting ready for post-COVID recovery, there is a
great opportunity to create a blueprint for more inclusive and
accessible work in our great Canadian cities. We hope the 2021
Urban Work Index will inform and inspire that dialogue to start
now."
New this year, youth can use an online widget to gain a
customized view of which Canadian city could be the best place for
them to work. Based on personalized inputs and preferences (mapped
against the 11 topics detailed within the Index), the widget will
help users 'find their city' by providing a tailored
recommendation. Young people can then post the result on social
media to share insights and inform their peers.
The Youthful Cities 2021 Urban Work Index is now available to
view online.
About RBC
Royal Bank of Canada is a global financial institution with
a purpose-driven, principles-led approach to delivering leading
performance. Our success comes from the 86,000+ employees who
leverage their imaginations and insights to bring our vision,
values and strategy to life so we can help our clients thrive and
communities prosper. As Canada's
biggest bank, and one of the largest in the world based on market
capitalization, we have a diversified business model with a focus
on innovation and providing exceptional experiences to our 17
million clients in Canada, the
U.S. and 34 other countries. Learn more at rbc.com.
We are proud to support a broad range of community initiatives
through donations, community investments and employee volunteer
activities. See how at rbc.com/community-social-impact.
About Youthful Cities
Since 2012, Youthful Cities has
designed programs that build a unique base of urban knowledge while
engaging youth (15-29 years) to design and develop innovative
solutions to their cities' critical issues. Our urban Indexes
ignite an important dialogue about the importance of youth to the
future of cities.
SOURCE RBC