YouthfulCities is excited to launch our first-ever Canada-wide YouthfulCities Index in 13 Canadian cities. It is the first public national comparable urban index, measuring 121 indicators spanning all 20 youthful infrastructure areas. And the data has all been collected by youth across the country. It’s their data too.This Index creates credible data for decision-makers, provide inspiration for urban innovation efforts, launches a network of young urban decoders, and creates national exposure for Canadian cities.
Our top three finishers are Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. The story of the top three is that they’re all holistic pictures of youthfulness. They don’t just do well in one or two areas, they do well across the overwhelming majority of our indicators. So, what about the other ten cities? How can they improve? Most of them are doing one or two things well, but that’s not enough to get them to the top of our Index. Still, small improvements in individual attributes do incrementally add up to increase the overall youthfulness for cities. Halifax, Hamilton and Winnipeg, for example, would simply need to create youth advisory boards connected to their city councils to dramatically increase their scores in Civic Engagement. This simple commitment would have a tangible effect on the youth in each city.
