Ontario
OpenStats City Score, ranking history, and local readings for Sarnia.
City Score #84 (2022) → #111 (2025)
Sarnia sits at City Score rank #111 with a standing of 46%, 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. Dropping 27 places versus 2022 (#84 → #111).
Latest owned placements: building permit value rank #67 of 172 (2025); indoor radon rank #19 of 117 at 156 Bq/m³ survey mean; residential mill rate rank #12 of 172 (16.67 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 Sarnia.
Documented pro, junior, university, and high-school teams tied to Sarnia.
Published residential mill-rate context for Sarnia.
North-end Lake Huron park with beach, Children's Animal Farm, and long-running community events. City staff call it the centrepiece of the
Twin spans over the St. Clair River toward Port Huron, with Point Edward at the Canadian footing. Lambton museum pages treat it as the
Canatara Park covers about 174 acres on the Lake Huron shore and hosts Canada Day and Christmas on the Farm.
Where Sarnia sits in published building-permit figures for July 2026.
Sarnia sits in Southwestern Ontario where Lake Huron empties into the St. Clair River at the Canada-US border. Municipal economic pages lead with that geography, then talk multi-modal corridors and a cultural district that shares the map with industry. Locals still hear Chemical Valley in everyday shorthand, while Observer headlines keep Line 5 and Sarnia-Lambton files on the front burner. Point Edward holds the Blue Water Bridge footings next door, and the twin spans remain the postcard backdrop from the water. Lambton museum pages treat the bridge as the place to watch freighters and eat fries with both countries in view.
Canatara Park is the parks-system centrepiece: a 174-acre north-end stretch on Lake Huron with Canatara Park Beach, the Children's Animal Farm, Canada Day, and Christmas on the Farm. City releases note Blue Flag status for the beach and a live master-plan conversation about future investment. Down at Sarnia Bay, the Andrew S. Brandt Marina lines up more than 350 slips with views of the Blue Water Bridges. Christina Street carries City Hall and the invest-Sarnia desk.
The calendar mixes border-city work with local play. Captain Kidd Days still marks the summer run on the Observer front, and Lambton College shows up whenever research and new programs make news. Bio-based manufacturing and research sit in the municipal growth pitch beside the older industrial story. Trail alerts on the Suncor Energy Foundation Nature Way remind people that conservation work and plant geography share the same shoreline. On OpenStats City Score for 2026, Sarnia sits at rank 106 of 125. People who live here still introduce the place by the lake-to-river turn and the bridges before they argue about plants or pipelines.
Drawn from City of Sarnia - Invest Sarnia, City of Sarnia - Canatara Park, City of Sarnia - Sarnia Bay Marina, The Sarnia Observer, Lambton County Museums - Blue Water Bridge.
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
sports · OpenStats
OpenStats
Cities with a Canadian Hockey League club ranked by regular-season points percentage (best club wins if several). Rank 1 = highest points %. Built from CHL standings and Wikipedia season pages. Cities without a CHL club are omitted.
8 editions · 2017–2025
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 Sarnia 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.
4 editions · 2014–2018
Distinctive local notes and places, each linked to its source.
Municipal copy places Sarnia where Lake Huron flows into the St. Clair River at the Canada-US border.
Canatara Park covers about 174 acres on the Lake Huron shore and hosts Canada Day and Christmas on the Farm.
Canatara Park Beach is named among a short list of Canadian Blue Flag beaches in city parks materials.
The Andrew S. Brandt Marina at Sarnia Bay offers more than 350 slips with views of the Blue Water Bridges.
North-end Lake Huron park with beach, Children's Animal Farm, and long-running community events. City staff call it the centrepiece of the parks system.
Full-service marina on Seaway Road with seasonal and transient slips. The Blue Water Bridges fill the view across the water.
Twin spans over the St. Clair River toward Port Huron, with Point Edward at the Canadian footing. Lambton museum pages treat it as the county's border landmark.
When Sarnia 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.
No spam. Unsubscribe with one reply.
