Purchasing Power Index | 119.66 | Very High |
Safety Index | 68.73 | High |
Health Care Index | 68.75 | High |
Climate Index | 44.46 | Moderate |
Cost of Living Index | 60.41 | Moderate |
Property Price to Income Ratio | 7.83 | Low |
Traffic Commute Time Index | 33.84 | Low |
Pollution Index | 24.64 | Low |
Quality of Life Index: | 177.33 | Very High |
Minimum contributors for an underlying section: 127
Maximum contributors for an underlying section: 373
Last update: December 2024
Quality of Life in Gatineau | 8.67 miles |
Quality of Life in Sainte-Martine | 118.23 miles |
Quality of Life in Laval | 119.87 miles |
Quality of Life in Montreal | 120.61 miles |
Quality of Life in Kingston | 120.69 miles |
Quality of Life in Longueuil | 128.91 miles |
Quality of Life in Belleville | 164.78 miles |
Quality of Life in Peterborough | 167.80 miles |
Quality of Life in Sherbrooke | 212.47 miles |
Quality of Life in North Bay | 221.58 miles |
DeutschLebensqualität in Ottawa |
PortuguêsQualidade de Vida em Ottawa |
ItalianoQualità della Vita a Ottawa |
FrançaisQualité de Vie à Ottawa |
EspañolCalidad de Vida en Ottawa |
Crazy house prices and forget about quality of life.
It's like everyone here is under influence, drunk or high. And not in an amicable way.
In general people smell canabis here like cigarettes, but the problem is that cannabis smoke is so terrible that if you pass through this smoke, and you dont even breathe, you feel the intoxication effect through the skin later. It is like a chemical weapon.It is a zero culture nightmare to have streets like that.
Not only streets smell of drugs and make you drunk, public areas like parks and stairs are not maintaned during the winter time, so you always have to climb through the snow if you wanna go somewhere. The abcence of maintainense, and constant smell of drugs and diesel. There are still many beautiful buildings from the past. But in 2023 it is not suitable for civilized life,
Canada showed great example what happen if you legalize drugs.
Regarding average quality of life, as of the time I'm writing this, here's what my thoughts are:
Healthcare here can be difficult to access until you have a primary healthcare provider. You may end up on a waitlist for that. I recommend any of the Community Health Clinics.
Housing varies, but buying an actual house here right now is something you'd need to be wealthy to do. I don't think this is unique to Ottawa per se, but prices have at least doubled since 2016. Downtown and other neighbourhoods either have new condos or are currently building them. Gentrification is happening. Take of that what you will.
I can't speak much to education but there are, I believe, 4 post secondary institutions here. Carleton, La Cité, Algonquin, and uOttawa. I think most of anglophone Ottawa forgets La Cité exists. I've been a student at all of the other schools besides La Cité. My general impression is that you get more out of Ottawa as a student than as a permanent resident. But this isn't necessarily true of other cities with more to do.
There are a lot of museums here. Ottawa has a reputation for being boring, which is understandable to me. But I think it's also a matter of individual preferences and where you seek entertainment. But most of the city definitely is boring, at least for having the population it does.
The public transit system is so bad it's being audited by the province, if I recall.
Safety-wise: I would say that Ottawa is fairly safe. I personally feel safe going outside at night downtown as a visibly marginalized person (I use a mobility device, and I'm trans), but not everyone does. I don't like our police but I don't know if they are better or worse than other places.
Air quality has been fairly bad downtown, but there are a lot of neighbourhoods that feel almost rural. If you're wearing a proper mask anyway like you should be, it shouldn't be an issue.
Groceries and other costs are higher downtown than in other neighbourhoods. Something that costs $27 downtown might be $12 in Herongate.
I imagine commutes are probably not good initially for people new to the area, because there are a lot of one way streets in some areas, and it can get confusing where you're supposed to go.
Wheelchair accessibility in the city is better than Montreal but worse than Toronto, in my opinion. There are a lot of heritage buildings here that people aren't willing to renovate. Finding places to rent with a wheelchair is a nightmare, but not impossible if you can afford it. Looking around the times of May 1 or Sept 1 for move-ins generally means rent is more manageable since that's when students move. Outside of that timeline you may be gouged.
Tl;dr Ottawa is a place of contrasts etc