Montrealers enjoy an enviable quality of life, but the city's economic productivity leaves much to be desired, in part because comparatively few of its inhabitants have university degrees.

That's one of the findings in the new edition of "Comparing Montreal," a report by the Institut du Quebec (IDQ) published Thursday.

The study compares Montreal with 14 North American cities of similar size, including Toronto, Boston and San Francisco.

"Montreal stands out in several important areas, such as quality of life and the environment, but it still has some way to go when it comes to two fundamental elements: wealth and human capital," said IDQ executive director Emna Braham in an interview.

Montreal ranks first in the quality of life category, scoring big points for its relatively low poverty rate, homicide rate and housing costs, as well as its high life expectancy.

The exception is the traffic subcategory, where Montreal ranked tenth for its hours lost to congestion.

For the first time, the IDQ report compared Montreal to other cities on an environmental level.

Montreal came fifth for air quality and public transit availability.

On a sourer note, the metropolis lags on the economic front, coming last in terms of productivity and gross domestic product per capita.

Braham suggests low productivity may be linked to the educational background of Montrealers; just over a third (36.

5 per cent) have a university degree.

The only city to rank lower in this regard was Phoenix, Arizona.

Braham said she was surprised by these results, given efforts made to reverse this trend.

"As we can see, university and college graduation rates are on the rise in Quebec.

Significant efforts have been made in recent years.

It was quite astonishing to see that we were so far behind.

"But the picture is improving for innovation-related indicators.

The IDQ puts Montreal in sixth place, up from tenth in 2015.

"It's mainly the result of the talent we find in Montreal, in the sectors of the future, graduates in the science and technology sectors.

This is a very attractive factor when it comes to attracting companies and investment," she said.

Results are more mixed regarding Montrealers and wealth.

They're in the best position when poverty rates and wealth inequality are taken into account, but rank last in terms of income per capita, even when government transfers and the cost of living are considered.

In contrast, San Fransico, with its large tech sector, comes out on top for per capita income but performs worst for wealth inequality.

Montrealers' low disposable income highlights improvements that can be made to its economic fabric in areas where high-tech sectors carry less weight: "Part of these discrepancies can be explained by what we ultimately do in an economy.

"Braham cited Toronto as an example, where salaries in the financial services industry "push up total wealth.

"This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Oct.

26, 2023.

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