Salmon Arm, British Columbia
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British Columbia · Civic arena

Salmon Arm

Salmon Arm drinking water hardness is 103 mg/L on OpenStats, plus City Score rankings and local readings.

Civic arena · hometown HUD

Salmon Arm

Census_agglomeration20k pop
51XP
#157

#157 of 343

51% City Score XP

DroppingSurface
City Score XP

6/8 pillars on the board

51%#157

Decade trail

Salmon Arm packs 6 of eight open-data pillars into its composite standing. Tap a rival below to see how the hometown stacks up head-to-head.

Salmon Arm drinking water

Regional estimate from nearest municipal sample

Hardness, pH, and lead from municipal reports on the OpenStats water atlas. This page uses a regional estimate — open the water atlas for method notes.

Hardness
103 mg/L
moderately hard
pH
8.1
Lead
0.7 μg/L

Full Salmon Arm water quality report →City Score rankingsCompare cities · vs Williams Lake · vs ChilliwackHardness guide

Watershed to tap · system map

How Salmon Arm's water works

Source, treatment, and distribution for Salmon Arm 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 Salmon Arm

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

How Salmon Arm scores

Dropping−73

Salmon Arm sits at City Score rank #157 with a standing of 51%, from 6 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. Dropping 73 places versus 2022 (#84 → #157).

Latest owned placements: indoor radon rank #246 of 327 at 72 Bq/m³ survey mean. Full tables and method notes live on each study edition; atlas readings for the same slug open from the topic buttons.

On the latest OpenStats pass, Salmon Arm carries a City Score standing of 51% (rank #157 of 343) with 6 of 8 pillars observed. That sits 3 points above the British Columbia peer average across 58 ranked cities. Within British Columbia, Salmon Arm ranks #19 of 58 on City Score.

The strongest signal in the current chart is drinking-water hardness (standing 87%, rank #297 of 343, raw score 103). The weakest observed pillar is population growth (standing 24%, rank #262 of 343). Crime severity uses the Statistics Canada police-service CSI mapped to Salmon Arm, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal (table 35100063), not a regional proxy.

Drinking-water hardness on the water atlas reads 103 mg/L as CaCO₃ for Salmon Arm. Compare that figure to the hardness pillar on the chart and to the national hardness guide on the hub.

#157
Arena rank (of 343)
51%
City Score
6
Pillars observed
Dropping−73
vs 2022
#84 → #157

Arena loadout

Topic XP bars

Arena rank #157 of 343

City Score

6/8 pillars · main XP bar

51%#157
Drinking water

Pillar avg · hardness #297

46%
Building permits

No placement

—
Internet

Rank #209

39%
Radon

Rank #246

75%
Hazards

Rank #259

76%
Property tax

No placement

—

Salmon Arm 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

Dropping -73Surface water supply

Hometown notes

City profile

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

Salmon Arm in brief

Salmon Arm introduces itself from the water. Marine Peace Park puts a 440-foot freshwater wharf and dock system on Salmon Arm Bay, with picnic lawns, a gazebo, boat launch access, and summer Wednesdays on the Wharf concerts that fill the calendar from June into August. The Raven Trail follows the bay for about four kilometres toward the Raven Subdivision, a favourite for walkers, cyclists, and birdwatchers who want shoreline time without leaving town. Visitor services even set up at the Wharf Info Hub when the season is busy.

Heritage work is unusually visible for a Shuswap city this size. Plaques mark the CPR Station, Old Courthouse, McGuire Lake, Marine Park, the fairgrounds, Mt. Ida Cemetery, and City Hall grounds, and an On This Spot walking tour layers then-and-now photos onto the same streets. The Secwépemc Landmarks Project adds trailhead posts and Coyote Pillar-style sculptures so lake stories sit beside settler buildings. East on Highway 97B, R.J. Haney Heritage Village spreads across forty acres with the 1910 Haney Home, trails, and a museum season that locals treat as a day out as much as a visitor stop.

Municipal pages open by naming Secwépemc traditional territory, and summer bulletins still talk Stage 2 water restrictions when the lake season peaks. On OpenStats City Score for 2025, Salmon Arm sits at rank 291 of 343. People here still point first to the wharf, the bay trail, and the Shuswap shoreline. Summer waterfront parking rules and trail maps keep Marine Peace Park practical as well as scenic, which is how a lake town actually works.

Drawn from City of Salmon Arm - Marine Peace Park, City of Salmon Arm - Heritage, R.J. Haney Heritage Village & Museum.

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 Salmon Arm

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

#209
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 329.7

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

#157
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 0.509

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 Salmon Arm, British Columbia, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, municipal (2025, Table 35-10-0063-01).

10 editions · 2016–2025

#48
Latest · 2025 · of 102
Score 77.57

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

#297
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 103

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

#246
Latest · 2025 · of 327
Score 72.4

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

#262
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 0.003169267707082833

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

#259
Latest · 2025 · of 343
Score 0.033

Worth knowing in Salmon Arm

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

Places to see

Marine Peace Park

Wharf, boat launch, gazebo, and bayfront lawns with Wednesday concert nights in summer. It is the city's clearest outdoor living room.

Raven Trail

Scenic 4 km shoreline path for walking, running, cycling, and birdwatching along Salmon Arm Bay. Locals use it as everyday waterfront.

R.J. Haney Heritage Village

East-side heritage park on Highway 97B with trails, historic buildings, and museum programs. A full afternoon when you want Shuswap history outdoors.

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