BC Council for Families

Congratulations Vancouver - you have been named one of Canada’s top five family-friendly cities! A study conducted by The Institute for Marriage and Family Canada this past month found Vancouver to be ranked among the top five of 33 Canadian cities. Researchers Rebecca Walberg and Andrea Mrozek used five main determining factors for the study: community feel, education choice, cost of living, economic strength and family independence.

Walberg and Mrozek used information such as the number of bike paths, parks and community centers, long-term residents, and number of people who give to charity to measure a city’s community feel, a factor not-so-easily gauged. Vancouver scored high on community feel, education choice and economic strength, but scored poorly on cost of living, receiving an overall ‘C’ grade. Vancouver scored mixed results for family independence, receiving an “A+” for percent of seniors living with family, but only chalked up a “C” for amount of unpaid time caring for children and seniors and other household tasks.

This report was recently mentioned in the Vancouver Province newspaper, with one of the Council’s own, Jennifer Dales, asked to comment on the study. She states “if you have an extended family that can support you as a parent, that's a massive factor. You're not going to throw that out the window for bike paths."

The full report can be accessed at The Institute for Marriage and Family Canada’s webpage.