EDMONTON - Edmonton has finally cracked the top 10 list of Canada’s best places to live, according to a survey released Tuesday by Canadian Business/MoneySense magazine.

The city was ranked number eight out of 180 cities with more than 10,000 residents, up sharply from its 16th ranking in 2010 and 18th in 2009. St. Albert came in at fifth spot this year, the first time it was included in the review.

And all three scores beat out Calgary, which earned a 16th spot this year, 27th in 2010 and 26th in 2009.

The consistent top four since 2009 have been Ottawa-Gatineau; Victoria; Burlington, Ont.; and Kingston, with Ottawa and Victoria exchanging top spots once.

To compile its lists, the magazine uses sources such as Statistics Canada and has devised a grading system.

Weather, for example, was calculated as the number of days below 0C, and the number of wet days, factoring in what Environment Canada calculates as ideal precipitation.

On weather, Edmonton and St. Albert were ranked 37, but the winner was Oakville, Ont.

Victoria was ranked Number 4, not the result most people might imagine.

Vancouver’s weather was ranked at 92 — a tally which must bring smiles to Edmontonians still facing freezing temperatures and mountains of snow and ice as April approaches.

Edmonton and St. Albert ranked 120 and 125 for affordable housing, better than Vancouver, which came in at 180 as Canada’s most expensive.

Household income in Edmonton was ranked 37th, far below St. Albert’s 7th-place standing and Calgary’s 6th place.

Fort McMurray won the top income spot, but the city ranked just 142nd overall. When discretionary income was calculated — a reflection of the cost of living and taxes — Fort McMurray fell to number 20, compared with Edmonton at 11 and St. Albert at the Number 2 spot.

But it turns out the residents of Whitehorse had the most loose cash in their jeans, and the most new vehicles per capita on the roads.

Edmonton and St. Albert were well above average in the categories of job prospects, population growth and access to health care.

But Edmonton was ranked 114 out of 180 for crime, compared with 64 for St. Albert. And while Edmonton was slightly below average for the number of people who walked or biked to work, St. Albert was near the bottom of the list.

Oddly, the top-ranked city with most people walking to work (per capita) was Yellowknife, just beating out Canmore.

At the other end of the list, the worst place in Canada to live was New Glasgow, N.S.

MoneySense’s data manager Phil Froats writes that the big reason cities like Bay Roberts, N.L.; Val-d’Or, Que.; and B.C. cities like Williams Lake, Quesnel, Campbell River and Port Alberni “and the rest of the sad-sack lot are at the bottom is because of high unemployment, low average household income, negative population growth rates, a dismal culture industry and, for the most part, high crime.”

dcooper@edmontonjournal.com