The uniqueness of Toronto also lies in the fact that it is the most polyethnic city in the world – 46% of the city's population were born outside Canada
In particular, Forbes magazine compiled a ranking of the world's most influential cities, in which Toronto came in 10th place, sharing it with San Francisco and Los Angeles. According to the international consulting firm ATKearney, in terms of overall weight, Toronto ranks 13th in the world.
As for quality of life, Toronto ranks fourth in the list of the most attractive cities, according to a report by The Economist magazine and the international consulting company The Economist Intelligence Unit.
Generally, it is worth noting that in the list of the world's most livable cities, after Australian Melbourne, which took first place, and Austrian Vienna, the next three places are occupied by Canadian cities – Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary. Following them are Australian cities Adelaide, Sydney and Perth, joined by Finnish Helsinki. New Zealand's Auckland rounds out the top ten.
The assessment was conducted among 140 leading cities of the world based on 30 parameters affecting quality of life, including safety, healthcare level, education and culture levels, infrastructure development, ecology, etc.
As for the Forbes magazine report, the ranking was based on the degree of influence of each metropolis on the global economy and politics. The leaders remain two cities – London and New York.
This year, Paris took third place – due to the fact that all leading companies of the still quite powerful French economy are concentrated here. No other European city made it into the list of the world's top ten metropolises, not even heavyweights like Munich, Rome and Hamburg – due to a lack of unique positions in the global economy.
However, in the list of the most influential cities, Asian cities took places in the top ten – Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Beijing, which shared 8th place with Australian Sydney. In the top ten, Arab Dubai also placed 7th.
The 10th place was shared by North American metropolises Los Angeles, San Francisco and Toronto. Los Angeles made the list due to its unique position as a center of the global film industry, and San Francisco as a global technology center. In general, many North American cities, along with Asian metropolises, are on the rise and have good prospects of entering the top ten in the future.
Toronto received tenth place in the Forbes ranking due to its role as a leading global banking and investment center linked to the processing and trade of natural resources. The city's uniqueness also lies in the fact that it is the most polyethnic city in the world – 46% of the city's population were born outside Canada.
It is also worth adding that the uniqueness of Toronto lies in the fact that, along with Australian Sydney, it is included both in the top ten most influential cities in the world and in the top ten most livable cities. Other metropolises cannot boast this – either they have influence but are not very comfortable to live in, or they are good to live in but cannot boast their weight in terms of economic influence - like, for example, Canadian Vancouver.
Generally, it is worth noting that Toronto has been rapidly changing for the better in the last ten to fifteen years. The whole city is essentially one continuous construction site, skyscrapers are mushrooming, new parks are being laid out, and much attention is paid to public spaces. In the process of preparing for the Pan American Games (analogous to the Olympic Games for the Western Hemisphere), which will take place in Toronto in the summer of 2015, there is a radical renovation of the entire strip along Lake Ontario, with a large space allocated for pedestrians.
Most importantly, they finally tackled the transportation problem. In terms of traffic congestion, only Los Angeles was worse than Toronto in North America. Currently, a large-scale program to expand the transportation system has begun to be implemented, including the construction of new light rail lines, switching commuter trains to a more frequent schedule, replacement of the transportation fleet - in particular, two years ago a complete replacement of subway trains began, and since fall 2014, new trams have been appearing on Toronto's streets. At least, progress is evident.
Well, the most obvious indicator of the state of the economy is the active real estate market in Toronto, with constantly rising prices. Thus, Toronto continues to be one of the most interesting cities in the world for real estate investment.
Based on materials from "Russian Toronto".