Burlington Tops WorldAtlas List of Best Places to Live in Ontario

Burlington sits at the top of WorldAtlas's 10 best places to live in Ontario for 2026, ahead of Ottawa, Halton Hills and Waterloo. The geography and travel site picked the city for reasons that have nothing to do with the view.

Three reasons do the work. Burlington is regularly among the safest municipalities in the country. Most residents here have a regular healthcare provider, which the writer points out is not something every Ontario town can claim. And housing, while no longer cheap, still undercuts Toronto an hour down the lake.

The write-up puts the city at roughly 187,000 residents and credits advanced manufacturing and biomedical firms with anchoring the job market. It sorts the neighbourhoods by what each one offers: fixer-uppers in Aldershot, mature treelined streets in Shoreacres, walk-to-the-water homes in Elizabeth Gardens, and newer family subdivisions out along the rural edge.

The waterfront and the park system carry the rest. Biking, hiking and paddling in the summer give way to cross-country skiing, skating and tobogganing once the lake wind turns.

The rest of the top 10: Ottawa, Halton Hills, Collingwood, Waterloo, Vaughan, Kingston, Thunder Bay, Aurora and Peterborough. The list closes by sorting itself for readers by what they care about most, and on access to a family doctor it names Burlington, Waterloo and Kingston as the safest bets in the province.