About & Methodology

What this product is

A data product for anyone researching where to live, work, or invest in British Columbia. The free Standard tier surfaces meaningful neighbourhood intelligence. Professional and Business tiers provide the data depth that realtors, developers, municipal governments, and financial institutions need.

This is not a real estate listing site, a recommendation engine, or a lead generation tool. We present data; we do not tell you what to do with it.

Data sources

All data comes from Canadian government open data. We do not collect or sell personal data. Sources include:

• Statistics Canada — 2021 Census (demographics, commuting flows), Crime Severity Index, Proximity Measures Database, Commuting Flow Data
• CMHC — Housing market data, Rental Market Survey, Housing Starts & Completions
• NRCan — CanadaSHM6 seismic hazard model, flood hazard maps, HRDEM terrain data
• Environment and Climate Change Canada — Climate Normals (1991–2020), AQHI real-time feed, NPRI industrial pollutants
• BC Wildfire Service — Fire perimeters, Wildland–Urban Interface risk class maps
• Province of BC — Agricultural Land Reserve polygons, tsunami zones, BC Parks
• Crown-Indigenous Relations — Aboriginal Lands Legislative Boundaries
• CRTC — National Broadband Internet Service Availability Map
• Metro Vancouver — Urban Containment Boundary

Full attribution: data attribution page.

Location Score methodology

The Location Score (0–100) is a composite measure of neighbourhood livability for a typical resident. It is pre-computed for every populated FSA and municipality in BC and updated monthly.

It does not measure investment potential. Housing price, rent levels, and affordability are deliberately excluded from the score.

Component weights

Component	Weight	Primary source
Daily Amenity Access	30%	StatCan Proximity Measures Database 2021
Safety	25%	StatCan Crime Severity Index
Environmental Health	15%	ECCC AQHI, NPRI, Health Canada radon data
Natural Hazard Resilience	15%	CanadaSHM6, BC Wildfire, NRCan flood, BC Tsunami Zones
Climate Comfort	10%	ECCC Climate Normals 1991–2020
Infrastructure Quality	5%	ODHF, GTFS transit feeds, school enrolment

Percentile normalization

Each component is percentile-ranked against all populated geographic units in BC. A score of 70 means "better than 70% of populated areas in BC." When Canada-wide data is added in Phase 2, the baseline will shift to national percentiles.

Score labels

Score range	Label
90–100	Exceptional
75–89	Very Good
60–74	Good
45–59	Fair
30–44	Below Average
0–29	Challenging

Methodology caveats

1. The score reflects livability for a typical resident, not investment potential. It does not include housing price, rent, or affordability data.
2. Weights reflect general Canadian housing preference research, not individual priorities. Professional users can adjust weights.
3. Percentile normalization is against BC (Phase 1). A score of 70 means "better than 70% of populated areas in BC." Baseline will shift when Canada-wide data is added.
4. Data vintage varies by component. Census data is from 2021; crime data lags approximately 12 months; AQHI is near-real-time.
5. Natural hazard scores are informational only and are not a substitute for professional risk evaluation or insurance assessment.
6. Geographic areas with population below 250, or where Statistics Canada has suppressed data, return null values rather than estimates. We do not interpolate suppressed data.

Indigenous lands data

Where shown, the "Federal Indian Reserve boundary" field reflects legislated boundaries from the Crown-Indigenous Relations Aboriginal Lands Legislative Boundaries dataset. This covers Indian Reserves and settlement lands under modern treaties only. It does not represent traditional territories, asserted title lands, or the full scope of Indigenous rights.

For traditional territory context, we recommend Native-Land.ca.

Limitations and disclaimers

Natural hazard and environmental data are for general informational purposes only. They are not a substitute for professional engineering assessment, a Phase I/II Environmental Site Assessment, or insurance evaluation.

Crime data is not displayed at a geographic precision that could identify individuals. We respect Statistics Canada suppression rules.

Zoning data is not currently included. No provincial dataset exists for BC municipal zoning. See our open question tracking for updates.

Geographic scope

Phase 1: British Columbia only. Phase 2: All of Canada using the same architecture. All data models and geographic identifiers are designed to be Canada-wide from day one.