The Smartest Cities

"The Canadian Council on Learning's annual Composite Learning Index, now in its third year, is created with data from 25 indicators, which in turn are grouped into four "pillars" of learning, originally developed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The "learning to know" pillar focuses on formal education. It includes university attainment, high-school dropout rates, the proportion of youth who pursue post-secondary studies, and the math, science, reading and problem solving scores of teenagers. "Learning to do," the second pillar, focuses on applied skills. It looks at the number of local vocational schools and the proportion of employees who have access to workplace training. The "learning to live together" pillar attempts to measure the social values in a community. It looks at things like the proportion of Canadians who volunteer, as well as participation in clubs, and the percentage who socialize with other cultures. The last pillar, the "learning to be" pillar, looks at cultural opportunities, and includes spending on books, museums, the arts, sports and recreation, as well as access to cultural resources."

"How your city scores could have a big impact on your life. For starters, if your city ranks higher, 'you'll make more money,' says Kevin Stolarick, research director of the Martin Prosperity Institute in Toronto, who studies communities and worked on the forthcoming Canadian edition of Who's Your City? with demographer Richard Florida. 'You will become a more skilled, educated and talented individual, and that's going to be reflected in the money you make.' Adds Dale Kirby, education professor at Memorial University in St. John's, 'we've seen consistently from the OECD that if you have a higher level of education among a population you're going to be doing reasonably well economically.'"