Ottawa Rideau Canal
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Ontario · Civic arena

Ottawa

Ottawa drinking water hardness is 21 mg/L on OpenStats, plus City Score rankings and local readings.

Civic arena · hometown HUD

Ottawa

Census_metropolitan_area1.5M pop
66XP
#7

#7 of 343

66% City Score XP

Top 7RisingDirectSurface
City Score XP

7/8 pillars on the board

66%#7

Decade trail

Ottawa packs 7 of eight open-data pillars into its composite standing. Tap a rival below to see how the hometown stacks up head-to-head.

Ottawa drinking water

Direct municipal reading

Hardness, pH, and lead from municipal reports on the OpenStats water atlas.

Hardness
21 mg/L
soft
pH
7.6
Lead
0 μg/L

Full Ottawa water quality report →City Score rankingsCompare cities · vs Bradford West Gwillimbury · vs PickeringHardness guide

Watershed to tap · system map

How Ottawa's water works

Source, treatment, and distribution for Ottawa from municipal and provincial water records. Open the animated map for the full watershed-to-tap diagram — no nested topic navigation here.

Local numbers for Ottawa

Permits, tax, internet, radon, hazards, drinking water, and sports rankings where a CHL hometown applies.

Sports

Junior hockey in Ottawa

Full sports page →
Team
Ottawa 67's
League
OHL
Points %
44.0%

67 GP · 59 pts · Compare CHL cities

How Ottawa scores

Rising+15

Ottawa sits at City Score rank #7 with a standing of 66%, from 7 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 15 places versus 2022 (#22 → #7).

Latest owned placements: building permit value rank #7 of 10 (2024); indoor radon rank #111 of 327 at 112 Bq/m³ survey mean; residential mill rate rank #54 of 57 (7.36 mill rate). Full tables and method notes live on each study edition; atlas readings for the same slug open from the topic buttons.

In the 2025 City Score edition, Ottawa carries a City Score standing of 66% (rank #7 of 343) with 7 of 8 pillars observed. That sits 14 points above the Ontario peer average across 123 ranked cities. Within Ontario, Ottawa ranks #6 of 123 on City Score.

The strongest signal in the current chart is drinking-water hardness (standing 99%, rank #341 of 343, raw score 21). The weakest observed pillar is seismic hazard (standing 15%, rank #52 of 343). Crime severity uses the Statistics Canada police-service CSI mapped to Ottawa Police Service (StatCan Ontario part of Ottawa–Gatineau) (table 35100026), not a regional proxy.

Drinking-water hardness on the water atlas reads 21 mg/L as CaCO₃ for Ottawa. Compare that figure to the hardness pillar on the chart and to the national hardness guide on the hub.

#7
Arena rank (of 343)
66%
City Score
7
Pillars observed
Rising+15
vs 2022
#22 → #7

Arena loadout

Topic XP bars

Arena rank #7 of 343

City Score

7/8 pillars · main XP bar

66%#7
Drinking water

Pillar avg · hardness #341

98%
Building permits

Rank #7

40%
Internet

Rank #146

58%
Radon

Rank #111

34%
Hazards

Rank #52

15%
Property tax

Rank #54

95%

Ottawa pillar standing

Eight equal-weight City Score pillars, 2025 panel year.

TaxPermitsNetRadonWaterHazardsGrowthCrime

Source: OpenStats composite / study editions

City Score standing trend

Standing percentage by panel year (higher is better).

Years: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025

Source: OpenStats composite timeseries

Achievements

Arena rank #7Rising +15Direct municipal readingSurface water supply

In the news

Data desk

Hometown notes

City profile

Older hometown notes stay on the desk archive (noindex) — this section shows recent highlights only.

Ottawa in brief

Ottawans measure the capital in station names and river crossings as much as in monuments. OC Transpo runs the daily grammar: bus routes folding into the O-Train, with Line 1 the Confederation spine people actually argue about when fall service changes land. Lincoln Fields Station shows up when west-end bridges or platforms need work. Winterlude brings its own vocabulary, the free Sno-Bus linking festival sites across Ottawa and into Gatineau, including a stop at ByWard Market. Come August, the Civic Holiday is Colonel By Day on City and transit notices, a local label that still surprises visitors reading a national calendar.

Neighbourhood talk stays concrete. Centretown and Alta Vista surface in ordinary Citizen briefs the way office towers never do. ByWard Market keeps the heritage-market pulse downtown, close enough to the Rideau Canal that cycling maps and heritage plans treat canal and market as one downtown circuit. West along the Ottawa River, Britannia Beach is where IRONMAN Canada-Ottawa starts its swim, turning a familiar shore into a weekend course map. Arts pages point to Shenkman Arts Centre and Doors Open Ottawa when the cultural calendar needs a civic address rather than a tourist brochure.

When something breaks, 3-1-1 is the number on ottawa.ca, not a generic help desk. Bluesfest weekends push OC Transpo into festival mode, then the city settles back into Line 1 frequency debates and Park & Ride talk. On the OpenStats City Score for 2025, Ottawa sits at rank 5 of 343. Rankings aside, the hometown read is transit you name by line, a market you meet by, and a holiday that still answers to Colonel By.

Drawn from City of Ottawa, City of Ottawa public transit, OC Transpo, City of Ottawa arts, heritage and events, Ottawa Citizen.

City Score over time

City Score from 2016–2025 across eight open-data pillars. Individual study placements are listed in the panels below.

0%25%50%75%100%2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
OpenStats City Score

Rankings for Ottawa

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 Broadband Download Speeds

OpenStats

Cities ranked by household-weighted maximum advertised download (Mbps) from ISED National Broadband Data hex ISP rows, with hex-to-city assignment by population-weighted gravity. The headline 2025 score is the dwelling-weighted mean of per-hex technology ceilings (fibre and cable at 1 Gbps, DSL lower). Household-weighted 50/10 availability (%) is stored on atlas rows as avail_5010_pct. Earlier panel years backcast along a national speed curve with city-specific fiber and availability paths.

10 editions · 2016–2025

#146
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 634.5

Construction · OpenStats

OpenStats Building Permit Value per Resident

OpenStats

Cities ranked by calendar-year municipal building permit value per resident (total permit dollars divided by the OpenStats population field). Permit totals use verified municipality-grain rows (Statistics Canada CSD or equivalent municipal open data). Population uses Statistics Canada Census 2021 (tables 98-10-0006-01, 98-10-0002-01). Cities without a verified municipal permit series are unplaced; City Score uses median standing on the construction pillar.

Single edition · 2024

#7
Published · 2024 · of 10
Score 2060.704545500357

Only one published edition places Ottawa in this study so far. Open the edition for method notes and the full table.

Original source · Full edition

Sports · OpenStats

OpenStats CHL Points Percentage

OpenStats

Canadian Hockey League (OHL, WHL, QMJHL) member cities ranked by regular-season points percentage. One CHL team maps to each OpenStats hometown slug; standings snapshot is curated from public league tables.

Single edition · 2025

#39
Published · 2025 · of 45
Score 0.44

Only one published edition places Ottawa in this study so far. Open the edition for method notes and the full table.

Original source · Full edition

Composite · OpenStats

OpenStats City Score

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). Crime severity uses StatCan police-service CSI only (Tables 35-10-0026-01 and 35-10-0063-01); cities without a police-service match take median standing on the safety pillar. Growth uses StatCan CSD estimates; construction uses verified municipal building-permit value per resident (population field on each city record, 2021 Census vintage); 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

#7
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 0.662

Safety · OpenStats

OpenStats Crime Severity Index

OpenStats

Communities ranked by Statistics Canada Crime Severity Index at police-service grain (Tables 35-10-0026-01 and 35-10-0063-01 for British Columbia). Rank 1 is highest CSI (worse). Cities without a police-service match are not listed; the safety pillar scores at median standing on City Score. Hometown pages name the police service and reference year.

CSI from Ottawa Police Service (StatCan Ontario part of Ottawa–Gatineau) (2025, Table 35-10-0026-01).

10 editions · 2016–2025

#94
Latest · 2025 · of 102
Score 50.61

Water · OpenStats

OpenStats Drinking Water Hardness

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

#341
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 21

Health · OpenStats

OpenStats Highest Indoor Radon

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

#111
Latest · 2025 · of 327
Score 111.7

Sports · OpenStats

OpenStats Local Sports Depth

OpenStats

Hometowns with a mapped junior hockey franchise ranked by local sports depth: league tier (CHL member leagues = 1.0, MHL = 0.65) multiplied by regular-season points percentage. Surfaces cities with both a franchise and a strong standings year; not a City Score pillar input.

Single edition · 2025

#39
Published · 2025 · of 49
Score 0.44

Only one published edition places Ottawa in this study so far. Open the edition for method notes and the full table.

Original source · Full edition

Growth · OpenStats

OpenStats Population Growth

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

#44
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 0.02644571979511068

Property tax · OpenStats

OpenStats Residential Mill Rates

OpenStats

Municipalities ranked by residential mill rate (education levies are shown on property-tax pages but not added here). Rank 1 is the highest rate. Atlas seed and published municipal rows anchor the panel; off-panel tax years (e.g. 2026) carry across 2016–2025; remaining gaps follow provincial paths.

10 editions · 2016–2025

#54
Latest · 2025 · of 57
Score 7.36

Hazards · OpenStats

OpenStats Seismic Hazard (PGA)

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

#52
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 0.159

Housing

CMHC Average 2-Bedroom Rent — Lowest Rent

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

Average rent for purpose-built 2-bedroom apartments (all tenants) from CMHC Rental Market Survey. Rank 1 = lowest average rent among covered CMAs.

Single edition · 2025

#15
Published · 2025 · of 18
Score 1926

Only one published edition places Ottawa in this study so far. Open the edition for method notes and the full table.

Original source · Full edition

Housing

CMHC Purpose-Built Rental Vacancy — Highest Vacancy

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

Purpose-built rental apartment vacancy rate from CMHC Rental Market Survey (October). Rank 1 = highest vacancy (most available rental stock among covered CMAs).

Single edition · 2025

#13
Published · 2025 · of 18
Score 3

Only one published edition places Ottawa in this study so far. Open the edition for method notes and the full table.

Original source · Full edition

Livability

Globe and Mail Most Livable Cities

The Globe and Mail

2023 data partnership with Environics Analytics ranking 439 Canadian communities on ten livability categories.

Single edition · 2023

#24
Published · 2023 · of 439

Only one published edition places Ottawa in this study so far. Open the edition for method notes and the full table.

Original source · Full edition

Livability

Maclean's Best Communities

Maclean's

Successor-style municipal livability ranking published by Maclean's for 2019 and 2021 (no 2020 edition).

Single edition · 2019

#3
Published · 2019 · of 415

Only one published edition places Ottawa in this study so far. Open the edition for method notes and the full table.

Original source · Full edition

Worth knowing in Ottawa

Distinctive local notes and places, each linked to its source.

  • Colonel By Day is the local name OC Transpo and the City use for the August Civic Holiday service shifts.

    OC Transpo

  • Winterlude's free Sno-Bus links festival sites across Ottawa and Gatineau, with a ByWard Market stop on the route list.

    OC Transpo

  • O-Train Line 1 is the named rail spine in fall service improvement notices, not a generic subway line.

    OC Transpo

  • Britannia Beach has served as the swim start for IRONMAN Canada-Ottawa on the City transit event map.

    OC Transpo

Places to see

ByWard Market

Heritage market district that still functions as a downtown meet point. Transit pages treat it as a Winterlude stop; arts and cycling materials keep it tied to the Rideau Canal circuit.

Britannia Beach

West-end Ottawa River beach familiar enough that triathlon organizers use it as a swim start. Locals know the shore year-round; race weekends just redraw the road closures.

Shenkman Arts Centre

Municipal theatre on the City arts roster, one of the civic stages Ottawans point to when the calendar needs a building name. It sits in the same arts network as Meridian Theatres at Centrepointe and Arts Court.

Lincoln Fields Station

West transit hub that surfaces whenever platforms or pedestrian bridges need work. It is the kind of station name that appears in service alerts more often than in tourist guides.

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