Nova Scotia
OpenStats City Score, ranking history, and local readings for Kentville.
City Score #128 (2022) → #106 (2025)
Kentville sits at City Score rank #106 with a standing of 47%, from 8 of 8 open-data pillars (tax, construction, connectivity, indoor air, water, seismic hazard, growth, safety). Missing pillars score at median standing so thin coverage cannot inflate the rank. Rising 22 places versus 2022 (#128 → #106).
Latest owned placements: building permit value rank #170 of 172 (2025); indoor radon rank #12 of 117 at 195 Bq/m³ survey mean; residential mill rate rank #27 of 172 (14.26 mill rate). Full tables and method notes live on each study edition; atlas readings for the same slug open from the topic buttons.
Open each topic for Kentville.
Documented pro, junior, university, and high-school teams tied to Kentville.
Published residential mill-rate context for Kentville.
Protected wetland trail loop popular for birdwatching, with access from the Harvest Moon Trail and Bridge Street. Info panels and viewing
Forest trail featured on Roots and Routes for Eastern Hemlocks and local conservation stories. Blue town signage helps newcomers find trail
Miner's Marsh holds about 1.7 km of trail with birdwatching stands and interpretive panels.
Where Kentville sits in published building-permit figures for July 2026.
Kentville puts itself at the heart of the Annapolis Valley, and the parks system is how that claim feels true on foot. Miner's Marsh, the Ducks Unlimited wetland locals just call Miners Marsh, loops 1.7 kilometres of trail with viewing stands and bird panels. You can reach it from the Harvest Moon Trail at Leverett Avenue or from parking behind the Law Courts on Bridge Street. Oakdene Park covers the other mood: soccer fields, a natural playground, a summer stage, and a duck pond that freezes into a rink when winter finally sticks.
Trail culture here is specific. Shared-use paths carry walkers and bikes under blue municipal signage, and Roots and Routes, the Recreation podcast, digs into places like Ravine Trail with its Eastern Hemlocks and Wabanaki-Acadian forest story. Downtown stays close: Centre Square at 389 Main Street, the Downtown Kentville Business District, and Experience Downtown Kentville links on the town site. Kentville Forward sits in the project spotlight language when council is pushing the next chapter. Errands and trailheads share the same small-town map.
On OpenStats City Score for 2026, Kentville sits at rank 64 of 125. The hometown pitch is Valley wetlands and ravines before any scoreboard. Birders head for the marsh, kids for Oakdene, and Main Street for the ordinary errands that make a county town feel finished. When someone says they are going for a walk in Kentville, they usually mean one of those named trail loops, not a generic green space on a tourist map.
Drawn from Town of Kentville - Parks and Trails, Town of Kentville - Miner's Marsh, Town of Kentville - Oakdene Park, Town of Kentville.
City Score from 2016–2025 across eight open-data pillars. Individual study placements are listed in the panels below.
Each study below is its own ranking. Where a study has more than one edition for this city, the chart shows standing across those years only.
Connectivity · OpenStats
OpenStats
Cities ranked by estimated best advertised download (Mbps). Anchored to the current ISED National Broadband Data vintage, then backcast along a national speed curve with city-specific fiber-arrival and 50/10 availability paths so relative ranks can change over the decade. Not a claim of audited historical hex maps for every year.
10 editions · 2016–2025
Construction · OpenStats
OpenStats
Cities ranked by calendar-year building permit value. Direct rows sum Statistics Canada Table 34-10-0292-01. Cities without a direct reading use population × provincial per-capita permit intensity (estimated), so every seed city has a year-varying construction signal.
10 editions · 2016–2025
Composite · OpenStats
OpenStats
Dimensional average of OpenStats open-data pillars for each panel year 2016–2025: tax, construction, connectivity, indoor air, water, seismic hazard, population growth, and crime severity. Each series is scored 0–1 within its edition; series in the same pillar are averaged, then all eight pillars are averaged with equal weight. Missing pillars score at median standing (0.5). Growth and CSI use StatCan annual tables; permits, mill rates, and broadband use live rows plus documented year-varying estimates where needed. Radon, water, and PGA may be survey/model vintages carried forward and are flagged when static for more than two years. External commercial livability lists are never inputs.
10 editions · 2016–2025
Safety · OpenStats
OpenStats
Communities ranked by Statistics Canada Crime Severity Index (Table 35-10-0026-01). Rank 1 is highest CSI (worse). Values are CMA where a metro match exists, otherwise provincial CSI. Hometown pages label the grain.
10 editions · 2016–2025
Water · OpenStats
OpenStats
Communities ranked by municipal drinking-water hardness (mg/L as CaCO₃). Hardness changes slowly; the atlas vintage is carried across panel years and flagged when static for more than two years.
10 editions · 2016–2025
Water · OpenStats
OpenStats
Communities ranked by reported lead (µg/L) on the OpenStats water atlas. Carried across panel years until annual municipal report panels are ingested.
10 editions · 2016–2025
Health · OpenStats
OpenStats
Communities ranked by Health Canada survey mean indoor radon (Bq/m³). Rank 1 is the highest mean. Decade panel years without a new survey carry the CMA survey vintage forward; they are not annual retests.
10 editions · 2016–2025
sports · OpenStats
OpenStats
Cities ranked by weighted count of documented local teams (pro, junior, university, high-school hubs). Rank 1 = deepest documented sports footprint among covered seed cities. Not a claim about on-field success. See sports methodology for weights and gaps.
Single edition · 2025
Only one published edition places Kentville in this study so far. Open the edition for method notes and the full table.
Growth · OpenStats
OpenStats
Cities ranked by year-over-year population growth from Statistics Canada annual CSD estimates (Table 17-10-0155-01). Rank 1 is fastest growth. A few places without a clean CSD match use a provincial-path estimate anchored to seed population.
10 editions · 2016–2025
Property tax · OpenStats
OpenStats
Municipalities ranked by residential mill rate. Rank 1 is the highest rate. Published municipal years are used when available; gaps are interpolated or follow the provincial median path so the tax pillar moves year to year for every city.
10 editions · 2016–2025
Hazards · OpenStats
OpenStats
Communities ranked by NRCan peak ground acceleration (higher = stronger shaking hazard). Rank 1 is highest PGA. The seismic model is multi-year; values are carried across the City Score panel and flagged as static until NRCan publishes a new generation.
10 editions · 2016–2025
Livability
MoneySense
Annual composite ranking of Canadian municipalities on economy, housing, crime, health, and weather.
2 editions · 2014–2015
Distinctive local notes and places, each linked to its source.
The Harvest Moon Trail connects into Miner's Marsh near Leverett Avenue.
Oakdene Park's duck pond becomes a skating rink in winter and a concert stage in summer.
Roots and Routes is the Town Recreation podcast that profiles places like Ravine Trail.
Centre Square sits at 389 Main Street as a downtown programming address.
Protected wetland trail loop popular for birdwatching, with access from the Harvest Moon Trail and Bridge Street. Info panels and viewing stands make it a first stop for visitors who want Valley nature without leaving town.
Community hub with soccer fields, a natural playground, community garden, and seasonal rink. Summer concerts on the park stage keep evenings local.
Forest trail featured on Roots and Routes for Eastern Hemlocks and local conservation stories. Blue town signage helps newcomers find trail heads across Kentville.
When Kentville moves in a ranking, posts new permit figures, or lands in a study, get a short note. A few sends a year, only when something changes.
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