Williams Lake has ranked 189 out of 190, in MoneySense Magazine’s latest 190 Best Cities to Live findings.
In 2010 the city ranked 177 out of 180.
The city received its best rankings in percentage of discretionary income. It ranked 37 for having 28.4 per cent of incomes being discretionary, and a rank of 49 for having 136.8 days of precipitation.
The worst rankings, however, were for 5,257 violent crimes, ranking the city at 188; for total crimes of 29,356, resulting in a ranking of 187; and for crime severity at 211.6, ranking it at 186.
Those crime rates, however, were based on 2010 Canadian Centre for Justice statistics, MoneySense states in the explanation of its rankings.
Other measurements included the percentage of people biking and walking to work, which was 7.1 per cent; the average house price, $273,900; and the percentage of people driving 2009-2011 vintage cars, which was 8.96 per cent.
In the category of population growth, MoneySense determined that an annual rate of 7.9 per cent was considered ideal.
Anything below or above that rate lost points and cities with a population loss got zero. Between 2006 and 2011, Williams Lake’s population rate declined by 1.4 per cent, causing it to receive a rank of 164.
The same is true for the subcategory of precipitation, which makes up part of the weather category. The ideal number is 700 millimetres a year, with anything above or below that losing points accordingly. Williams Lake had 450.3 mm of precipitation, and ranked 78. It ranked 153 for pollution and 178 for employing 0.68 per cent of the population in arts, culture and sports.
Ottawa, Ont., ranked the highest, New Glasgow, N.S. ranked the lowest, while Quesnel ranked 173 and Kamloops ranked 44.