Ottawa vs Vancouver for couples
Ottawa and Vancouver are both in Canada, about 3,540 km apart. Every figure below comes from the data behind our city pages: an estimated monthly cost for a couple, tax tier, annual climate, safety, healthcare, internet speed, language and residency rules.
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Side by side
Source: the datasets behind our city pages. Cost is our model estimate (a country-level cost index scaled for city size); tax tiers are assigned by hand from each country's top marginal income tax rate and overall tax reputation; temperature from the Open-Meteo archive (2019 to 2023 averages); rainfall from TerraClimate (1991 to 2020 normals); safety and healthcare are our own country-level estimates; internet from the Ookla Speedtest Global Index; English from the EF English Proficiency Index; residency from our hand-reviewed residency dataset (not legal advice); short-stay entry from the passport-index dataset.
Factor by factor
Cost of living
Close on cost: we estimate about €3,832 a month for a couple living centrally in Ottawa and €3,765 in Vancouver.
Taxes
Same country, same tax: Canada is in our high tax tier.
Climate
Vancouver is 3°C warmer on average over the year: 10°C against 7°C in Ottawa. Ottawa is drier, with about 949 mm of rain a year against 1,603 mm in Vancouver (41% less).
Safety
Our safety score is country-level, so both cities get the same 60 out of 100.
Healthcare
Our healthcare score is country-level, so both cities get the same 72 out of 100.
Internet
Our broadband figure is country-level: about 170 Mbps median fixed download in both.
Language
Main languages in both: English, French. English proficiency is rated the same in both: English everywhere.
Residency and visas
Same country, same rules: long-term residency in Canada is rated comparatively open.
Which one fits a couple
As two cities in Canada, Ottawa and Vancouver share every country-level figure, and no factor we score puts either clearly ahead. What sets them apart: Vancouver is 3°C warmer on average (10°C against 7°C); Vancouver is wetter, with 1,603 mm of rain a year against 949 mm; Ottawa is a large city (1 to 5 million people) and Vancouver a mid-sized one (250,000 to 1 million people); Ottawa is inland and Vancouver coastal. They are 3,540 km apart.
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