Methodology
How neighbourhood scores work
Each metric is converted to a 0-100 score with fixed breakpoints (piecewise-linear, not relative to other neighbourhoods). Montreal has its own scale: metrics whose typical level is set by the city (collisions per kilometre of road, transit service, parkland per resident, rent and home prices) are rescaled to Montreal, and the rest share the reference breakpoints. Metrics are averaged into categories using the weights below, and categories into the overall score. Quebec publishes no exam results for individual schools, so Schools is not scored in Montreal and the overall score uses the other six categories. Distances and shares are measured from where residents live (every dwelling on the island's assessment roll, placed on its lot), weighted by population.
Scoring model v2, updated 2026-10-11. Every number on this page is read from the same configuration file the data pipeline uses.
Overall score
The overall score is the weighted average of six category scores. Schools is not scored for Montreal, so the other categories' weights are scaled up to fill its share. On the home page you can change these weights or pick a preset; category scores stay the same, only how they are combined changes.
Safety
25% of overallCrime near homes and serious traffic collisions.
Violent crime near homes · 50% of Safety · per 1,000 residents / yr, lower is better
Police-reported assaults, sexual assaults, robbery, homicides and attempts, firearms offences and other crimes against the person, 2024-25, per 1,000 residents per year, counting incidents in residential areas in full and in mixed-use areas at half. The SPVM publishes these totals for its 28 police districts; each district's total is shared among its neighbourhoods half by where robberies happened and half by where its residents live. The SPVM doesn't publish where violent incidents happen, so the at-home share comes from where mischief and thefts of and from vehicles happened in the neighbourhood. Residents are the 2021 Census population grown with Statistics Canada estimates and the homes built since. Small neighbourhoods are shrunk toward the island rate.
Source: SPVM Bilan mensuel sur la criminalité and Actes criminels (open data); Ville de Montréal assessment roll
Property crime near homes · 30% of Safety · per 1,000 residents / yr, lower is better
Break-ins, theft of vehicles, other theft (including from vehicles and shoplifting), arson and mischief (fraud excluded), 2024-25, per 1,000 residents per year, counting incidents in residential areas in full and in mixed-use areas at half. Police-district totals are shared among neighbourhoods by where the SPVM placed each category's incidents, and the land use is the floor space on the assessment roll around each location. Shrunk toward the island rate.
Source: SPVM Bilan mensuel sur la criminalité and Actes criminels (open data); Ville de Montréal assessment roll
Injury collisions on local roads · 20% of Safety · per 10 km of road / yr, lower is better
Police-reported injury collisions (2017-2021, the latest years the City has mapped) per 10 km of non-autoroute street per year. Fatal and serious-injury collisions count three times and collisions involving a pedestrian or cyclist twice. Autoroute collisions and collisions in parking lots are not counted. Shrunk toward the island rate for short road networks.
Source: Ville de Montréal Collisions routières (SPVM reports); Géobase road network
Montreal scale: the reference breakpoints × 4.65, so a typical Montreal neighbourhood (14) scores like a typical one in Ottawa (3.0).
Schools
15% of overallResults at the schools residents would most likely attend, and how far away they are.
Not scored for Montreal: too little of this category's data is published, so it is left out of the overall score.
Nearest elementary schools (test results) · 45% of Schools · % meeting standard, higher is better
Not available for Montreal.
Nearest high schools (test results) · 20% of Schools · % meeting standard, higher is better
Not available for Montreal.
Distance to an elementary school · 35% of Schools · km, lower is better
Average straight-line distance from homes to the nearest public elementary school, French (CSSDM, Marguerite-Bourgeoys, Pointe-de-l'Île) or English (EMSB, Lester B. Pearson). English public schools are open only to children eligible under the Charter of the French Language.
Source: Ministère de l'Éducation du Québec, Localisation des établissements d'enseignement
Amenities
15% of overallShare of residents who can reach everyday destinations nearby.
Grocery store within 1 km · 25% of Amenities · % of residents, higher is better
Share of residents within 1 km (straight line) of a supermarket or full-service grocer.
Source: Ville de Montréal Établissements alimentaires; OpenStreetMap
Park within 400 m · 20% of Amenities · % of residents, higher is better
Share of residents within 400 m of the edge of a public park (City parks in the boroughs, and municipal parks in Westmount, Mount Royal, Côte-Saint-Luc, Hampstead, Montreal West, Montreal East and the West Island cities).
Source: Ville de Montréal parks and public spaces; OpenStreetMap
5+ places to eat within 800 m · 20% of Amenities · % of residents, higher is better
Share of residents with at least five restaurants, cafes, bakeries or pubs within 800 m.
Source: Ville de Montréal Établissements alimentaires; OpenStreetMap
Recreation facility within 1.5 km · 15% of Amenities · % of residents, higher is better
Share of residents within 1.5 km of a public pool, arena, rink or community or recreation centre.
Source: Ville de Montréal Lieux et bâtiments à vocation publique and Installations récréatives; island municipalities; OpenStreetMap
Distance to a library · 20% of Amenities · km, lower is better
Average distance from homes to the nearest public library branch (Bibliothèques de Montréal, the Grande Bibliothèque, or a municipal library in the other island cities).
Source: Ville de Montréal open data; OpenStreetMap
Getting Around
15% of overallFrequent transit, protected bike routes, and how far homes are from downtown jobs and highways.
Peak transit service near home · 35% of Getting Around · departures / hour, higher is better
Weekday 7-9 am departures per hour within 400 m (STM and exo buses) or 800 m (métro, REM and exo trains), counting each route and direction once, averaged across residents. Rail stations just off the island (Laval and Longueuil métro, REM and exo stations) count.
Source: STM, REM and exo GTFS
Montreal scale: the reference breakpoints × 3.39, so a typical Montreal neighbourhood (42/hr) scores like a typical one in Ottawa (13/hr).
Distance to downtown · 25% of Getting Around · km, lower is better
Average straight-line distance from homes to downtown (McGill College and Sainte-Catherine), the island's largest employment centre.
Source: Computed from resident locations
Protected bike route within 400 m · 25% of Getting Around · % of residents, higher is better
Share of residents within 400 m of a physically separated bike route: off-street and multi-use paths, sidewalk-level and protected cycle tracks, and lanes with posts, medians or parked cars. Painted lanes, signed shared roadways and vélorues don't count.
Source: Ville de Montréal Réseau cyclable
Distance to a highway · 15% of Getting Around · km, lower is better
Average distance from homes to the nearest autoroute, including those in Laval and on the South Shore.
Source: Ville de Montréal Géobase; OpenStreetMap
Nature
10% of overallTree cover, nearby large greenspace, and parkland per resident.
Tree canopy · 35% of Nature · % coverage, higher is better
Share of land under tree canopy (crowns of trees over 3 m, 2019), as the City publishes it for each reference neighbourhood; water is excluded. The island as a whole has 25.3%, meeting the City's target of 25%.
Source: Ville de Montréal canopy by reference neighbourhood (Règle 3-30-300)
Large greenspace within 1 km · 35% of Nature · % of residents, higher is better
Share of residents within 1 km of a park or natural area of 4 ha or more of any ownership on the island (Mount Royal, the nature parks, Parc Jean-Drapeau, the Lachine Canal, municipal parks). Parks in Laval, on the South Shore or across Lac Saint-Louis don't count.
Source: Ville de Montréal parks and public spaces; OpenStreetMap
Parkland nearby per 1,000 residents · 30% of Nature · ha / 1,000 residents, higher is better
Hectares of public parkland within 1 km of each home divided by the residents who share it.
Source: Ville de Montréal parks and public spaces; OpenStreetMap
Montreal scale: the reference breakpoints × 0.38, so a typical Montreal neighbourhood (2.1) scores like a typical one in Ottawa (5.5).
Affordability
10% of overallTypical rent and home value, from one consistent source for every neighbourhood.
Typical rent · 50% of Affordability · $ / month, lower is better
2021 Census median monthly rent, scaled to today's market by one island-wide factor (Rentals.ca average asking rent for Montreal, September 2026, over the City of Montréal's 2021 Census median: $1,959 / $870). Montreal's factor is high because tenants on long leases pay far below asking rents. Census figures are dissemination areas summed into neighbourhoods. Subsidized units pull a census median below what a new tenant would pay, so each neighbourhood's figure adds back $2.03 per percentage point of tenants in subsidized housing (the relationship across Montreal's neighbourhoods), rebased so the island median is unchanged.
Source: Statistics Canada 2021 Census; Rentals.ca/Urbanation
Montreal scale: the reference breakpoints × 0.97, so a typical Montreal neighbourhood ($1,940) scores like a typical one in Ottawa ($2,000).
Typical home value · 50% of Affordability · $, lower is better
2021 Census median value of owned dwellings, scaled to today's market by the change in Centris median sale prices on the Island of Montreal from Q2 2021 to Q3 2026 (single-family +11.4%, condominium +13.6%, plex +17.2%, weighted by the island's housing stock).
Source: Statistics Canada 2021 Census; QPAREB Centris statistics
Montreal scale: the reference breakpoints × 0.95, so a typical Montreal neighbourhood ($628,000) scores like a typical one in Ottawa ($659,000).
Health & Environment
10% of overallEmergency care, primary care, overdose burden and traffic noise.
Distance to an emergency department · 40% of Health & Environment · km, lower is better
Average distance from homes to the nearest emergency department open 24/7 for adults, including Cité-de-la-Santé (Laval), Charles-Le Moyne and Pierre-Boucher (Longueuil) just off the island. Sainte-Justine (children only), the Montreal Heart Institute and psychiatric emergencies don't count. Emergency services are as listed on each hospital's ministry permit in March 2024.
Source: Quebec MSSS M02 register of installations and services
Overdose ED visits · 25% of Health & Environment · per 100K / yr, lower is better
Not available for Montreal, so Health & Environment is scored from its other metrics.
Homes next to major roads · 20% of Health & Environment · % of homes, lower is better
Share of homes (every dwelling on the assessment roll) within 150 m of an autoroute or 50 m of an arterial road, a standard proxy for traffic noise and air pollution exposure.
Source: Ville de Montréal assessment roll and Géobase; OpenStreetMap
Distance to a family / walk-in clinic · 15% of Health & Environment · km, lower is better
Interim measure: average distance to the nearest clinic or family practice mapped in OpenStreetMap, CLSC or university family medicine group. Quebec publishes no list of private clinics with locations, so coverage is incomplete.
Source: OpenStreetMap contributors; Quebec MSSS M02 register
Turning values into scores
Each metric is mapped to 0–100 with fixed breakpoints (shown beside each metric) and straight lines between them. Values beyond the first or last breakpoint get that breakpoint's score. Because the breakpoints are fixed, a neighbourhood's score only changes when its own data changes.
Each city has its own scale. Most metrics mean the same thing everywhere (a 500 m walk to a school, a test result, tree cover), so they share breakpoints. Metrics whose typical level is set by the city itself (collisions per kilometre of busy road, transit service, parkland per resident, rents and home prices, and overdoses, which cities count differently) are rescaled for each city: the breakpoints are multiplied by the city's median over Ottawa's, keeping the same curve. Scores compare neighbourhoods within a city, not across cities.
Counts of rare events (crime, collisions, overdoses) are noisy in small neighbourhoods. Rates are shrunk toward the city rate by adding 5,000 person-years (or 30 road-km-years for collisions) at the city average. This pulls small neighbourhoods toward the middle in both directions; large neighbourhoods barely move.
Missing data is never treated as zero. A category's score is the weighted average of the metrics that have data; if less than 70% of its weight has data, the category is left out of the overall score and the neighbourhood is flagged.
Score labels: Excellent (80+), Very good (75+), Good (65+), Fair (55+), Poor (0+). The thresholds are set so a label never contradicts a neighbourhood's tier (no “Very good” in the bottom half).
Rankings
Neighbourhoods with the same rounded score share a rank. Because reasonable people weigh categories differently, each neighbourhood also shows a likely rank range: the overall score is recomputed 500 times with every category weight multiplied by a random factor between 0.8 and 1.2, and the range covers the 10th to 90th percentile of the resulting ranks.
Tiers: Top 10%, Top 25%, Top half, Bottom half. A narrow range means the rank holds up under different weightings; a wide one means it depends on what you value.
- Balanced: The default weights. (Safety 25%, Schools 15%, Amenities 15%, Getting Around 15%, Nature 10%, Affordability 10%, Health & Environment 10%)
- Families: Schools, safety and parks first. (Safety 25%, Schools 25%, Amenities 10%, Getting Around 5%, Nature 15%, Affordability 10%, Health & Environment 10%)
- Car-free: Transit, walkable amenities and downtown access. (Safety 15%, Schools 5%, Amenities 25%, Getting Around 35%, Nature 5%, Affordability 10%, Health & Environment 5%)
- On a budget: Lower rent and home prices weigh most. (Safety 20%, Schools 10%, Amenities 10%, Getting Around 15%, Nature 5%, Affordability 35%, Health & Environment 5%)
- Retirees: Safety, health care and quiet nature. (Safety 25%, Amenities 20%, Getting Around 10%, Nature 15%, Affordability 5%, Health & Environment 25%)
Shown but not scored
These appear in each neighbourhood's breakdown for context but do not affect scores.
- All police-reported incidents
- Every violent and property incident above, divided by residents. Inflated in areas with many visitors, so it is shown but not scored.
- Residents used for crime rates
- 2021 Census population grown by the dwellings added since (municipal address points), estimated for the crime data period, so fast-growing suburbs are not divided by an out-of-date population.
- Property incidents in commercial areas
- Property incidents the SPVM placed at locations that are mostly business, industrial or institutional floor space, or without buildings. Reflects visitor activity more than risk at home.
- Collisions
- Every police-reported collision on the street network, including property damage only, per year (2017-2021).
- Schools inside the boundary
- Count of schools located inside the neighbourhood polygon. Not scored, since children often attend schools just outside it.
- Workers commuting 60+ min
- 2021 Census. Collected during the pandemic, so shown for context only.
Known limitations
- Neighbourhoods are the City of Montréal's 91 reference neighbourhoods (quartiers de référence en habitation): its 19 boroughs split into 76 historic areas, plus the 15 other municipalities on the island (Westmount, Mount Royal, Côte-Saint-Luc, Hampstead, Montreal West, Montreal East and the West Island cities), each kept whole. Names are the City's, except where an area has a better-known name (Old Montreal, Downtown, Little Burgundy–Griffintown, NDG, Nuns' Island). Census figures are Statistics Canada's 2021 dissemination areas (a few hundred residents each) summed into neighbourhoods, each area going whole to the neighbourhood that holds most of its land. Median rent and home value are medians of the dissemination-area medians.
- Resident locations come from the island's property assessment roll, which lists the number of dwellings in every property and each condo unit separately; homes are placed on their lot and calibrated to each dissemination area's 2021 Census households. Rates divide by the 2021 Census population grown with Statistics Canada's estimates for the island (+7.8% to July 2025), spread across neighbourhoods by the homes built since and otherwise in proportion to population.
- Quebec publishes ministry exam results only for school service centres and the province, not for individual schools, so Montreal has no school test scores and Schools is not part of its overall score: the overall score uses the other six categories, with their weights scaled up. Schools are still listed (French and English public boards and private schools), and the distance to the nearest public elementary school is shown.
- Crime counts are the SPVM's official monthly statistics for 2024–25 (fraud excluded), which it publishes for its 28 police districts. Each district's property crime is shared among its neighbourhoods by where the SPVM placed that kind of incident in its open incident file. Its violent crime is shared half by where robberies happened and half by where its residents live, because the file locates no assaults and many assaults are domestic. The share that happened in residential areas comes from the floor space on the assessment roll around each incident (residential in full, mixed areas at half); for violent crime it uses the neighbourhood's mischief and vehicle thefts. Crimes recorded in the métro (about 2%) are not counted.
- Collisions are police-reported collisions mapped by the City for 2017–2021, the latest years with locations: the SAAQ publishes later years without them. Serious and fatal collisions count three times and those involving a pedestrian or cyclist twice; autoroute collisions are not in the data and collisions in parking lots are left out.
- Montreal has its own scale for metrics whose typical level depends on the city. Its streets have about 4.7 times Ottawa's weighted injury collisions per kilometre, its transit runs about 3.4 times as often and it has about 40% of Ottawa's parkland per resident, so those scales (and rent and home prices) are set from Montreal's own neighbourhoods. Scores compare neighbourhoods within Montreal.
- Overdoses are not scored for Montreal: Quebec publishes overdose deaths and opioid-related emergency visits only for the whole Montréal health region, too coarse to describe neighbourhoods. Health & Environment uses the other three measures.
- Hospitals and their emergency departments come from the Quebec health ministry's register of sites and the services on each site's permit (as of March 2024). Nearest emergency counts adult 24/7 departments on the island and just off it (Laval, Longueuil, Terrebonne, Châteauguay, Saint-Eustache); Sainte-Justine (children), the Montreal Heart Institute (cardiac) and psychiatric emergencies don't count. Primary care is OpenStreetMap clinics plus the ministry's CLSCs and university family medicine groups; Quebec publishes no list of private clinics with locations, so coverage is incomplete.
- Transit counts STM bus and métro, REM and exo commuter-train service, plus exo suburban buses where riders may board on the island, between 7 and 9 am on a weekday in October 2026. Rail stations just off the island (Laval and Longueuil métro, off-island REM and exo stations) count for nearby homes; bus stops across the rivers don't.
- Restaurants, cafés and grocery stores come from the City's list of open food establishments, which its inspectors oversee across the whole island, categorized from each permit type and name and refined with OpenStreetMap; caterers, food trucks, institutional kitchens and counters inside supermarkets are left out. Full-service grocers are supermarkets (IGA, Metro, Super C, Maxi, Provigo, Adonis, Walmart, Costco and independents), one per store.
- Parks are the City's parks and public spaces (borough parks, squares, Mount Royal, Parc Jean-Drapeau and the nature parks; golf courses, cemeteries and road green spaces left out). The City's layer covers only its 19 boroughs, so parks in the other island municipalities come from OpenStreetMap. Large greenspace counts parks and natural areas of 4 ha or more of any ownership on the island; parks in Laval, on the South Shore or across Lac Saint-Louis are across water and don't count.
- Tree canopy is the City's 2019 canopy (crowns of trees over 3 m) for each reference neighbourhood, with water excluded; the island has 25.3%, meeting the City's 25% target.
- Rent and home values are 2021 Census medians scaled by one island-wide factor (Rentals.ca asking rents and Centris median sale prices for the Island of Montreal), so they rank neighbourhoods consistently but are not current asking prices. Montreal's rent factor (2.25) is higher than other cities' because tenants on long leases pay far below asking rents. Census median rent is adjusted for the share of tenants in subsidized housing.
- Montreal has no published Walk Score or Bike Score by neighbourhood. Walkability is a TopHoods index (0–100) of everyday places near home: a grocery store, the ten nearest places to eat, two cafés, a park, an elementary school and a library, each with full credit within 400 m, fading to none at 1.6 km. Bike route access is the share of residents within 400 m of a physically separated bike route (off-street and multi-use paths, protected cycle tracks, lanes with posts or medians; not painted lanes or shared streets).
- Distances are straight-line, not along streets or paths. Places across the Rivière des Prairies or the St. Lawrence are not counted as nearby, except rail stations and hospitals people can reach by bridge.