Vancouver is the 10th-best city worldwide in terms of the work-life balance it offers to residents, according to a list released Wednesday. It's also the only city in North America to make the top 10.
The rankings were produced by Kisi, an app-based office security company. Kisi looked at 40 cities around the world, which were selected based on their status as "in-demand metropolises" with "sufficient, reliable, and relevant datasets," the company said in a release.
Each city was scored based on 20 factors pertaining to work-life balance, with a total score out of 100 assigned based on those factors.
Vancouver received a score of 72.55 overall, just slightly ahead of Ottawa, which came in at number 11 on the list.
The top-rated city on the list was Helsinki, Finland, with a score of 100. Kisi was quick to point out, however, that "a value of 100 does not mean a city is perfect in terms of work-life balance and has zero room for improvement."
"Rather, it means that the city has the healthiest work-life balance out of all the cities in the index," the company said.
Among the factors incorporated in the ranking, Vancouver scored particularly well on "society and institutions" -- things like access to health care and acceptance of LGBTQ+ people -- and on "city livability," which is based on a "compilation of indicators," according to Kisi.
Vancouver fared less well on "work intensity." Workers here take fewer vacation days than their counterparts in European cities, which reduced the city's overall score.
The top ten cities in the ranking were:
- Helsinki
- Munich
- Oslo
- Hamburg
- Stockholm
- Berlin
- Zurich
- Barcelona
- Paris
- Vancouver
