Calgary vs Edmonton, 2026

The short answer

Edmonton is cheaper to rent and to buy in. Calgary has less police-reported crime, a milder winter and a lower property tax rate. On jobs and pay the two cities sit close together, with Calgary a little ahead. Each card shows the number behind the call.

1. Cheaper rent

   Edmonton

   A two-bedroom in a purpose-built apartment rented for an average of $1,603 a month in Edmonton in October 2025, against $1,914 in Calgary.^1,2 Listings this spring showed the same gap: $1,570 against $1,890 in the second quarter of 2026.³

   $311Less a month for a two-bedroom, Oct. 2025
2. Cheaper homes

   Edmonton

   The benchmark home in the City of Edmonton cost about $402,000 in September 2026, by the local real estate board's rounded figure. In the City of Calgary it was $566,700.^4,5

   ~$165KLower benchmark price (our calculation)
3. Lower property tax rate

   Calgary

   On a home assessed at $500,000, the 2026 tax bill would be $3,324.95 in Calgary and $5,181.85 in Edmonton, by our calculation from each city's published rates.^6,7

   $1,857Less a year on the same $500,000 home
4. Lower crime

   Calgary

   Calgary's Crime Severity Index was 61.66 in 2025, below Canada's 75.01. Edmonton's was 95.55.⁸

   61.66Crime Severity Index, vs 95.55 in Edmonton
5. Milder winter

   Calgary

   January averages −7.6°C at Calgary's airport and −12.3°C at Edmonton's. The daily high stays at or below freezing on about 61 days a year in Calgary and 91 at Edmonton's airport.^9,10

   4.7°CMilder January average (our calculation)
6. Jobs and pay: close

   Calgary, by a little

   Unemployment averaged 6.7% in Calgary and 6.9% in Edmonton over June to August 2026, and Calgary's employment rate was higher, 66.5% against 64.2%.¹¹ Employers offered $28.40 an hour for vacant jobs in the Calgary region and $27.90 in the Edmonton region.¹²

   6.7%Unemployment, vs 6.9% in Edmonton

Calgary vs Edmonton: the full scorecard

Nineteen measures, newest data we could find for each. Most figures cover the metro area, the city plus the commuter towns around it, because that is how Statistics Canada and CMHC report. Home prices and property tax cover each city itself. On a phone, swipe the table sideways.

Metro area means Statistics Canada's census metropolitan area. Rents are CMHC's survey of purpose-built apartments (what tenants pay) and Statistics Canada's experimental listing data (what new tenants are asked). Benchmark prices come from CREB and the REALTORS® Association of Edmonton, which publishes the City of Edmonton figure rounded to the nearest thousand. Property tax uses each city's 2026 total residential rate. Wages are averages offered in job ads, not wages paid. Edmonton's transit figure is a monthly fare cap, not a pass. Climate figures are 30-year normals at each city's airport. Differences in the Edge column are our calculations.

Monthly cost gap: Calgary minus Edmonton

Ember bars: Calgary costs more each month. Green bar: Calgary costs less. Property tax is our calculation for a home assessed at $500,000 in both cities, divided by 12.

• Two-bedroom asking rentQ2 2026 listings+$320
• Two-bedroom average rentCMHC, Oct. 2025+$311
• Adult transitpass vs fare cap+$24
• Property tax$500,000 home−$155

−$4000+$400

Calgary vs Edmonton population

Calgary is the bigger city by either count. Statistics Canada estimated 1,836,012 people in the Calgary metro area on July 1, 2025, and 1,692,385 in Edmonton's, a gap of 143,627.¹³ Inside city limits the gap is wider: 1,612,834 people in the City of Calgary and 1,238,295 in the City of Edmonton.¹⁴ About 27% of the Edmonton metro's people live outside the city itself, against 12% in the Calgary metro (our calculation).

Both are growing fast. Edmonton (+3.0%) and Calgary (+2.9%) were two of the three fastest-growing metros in Canada in the year to July 1, 2025, along with Moncton. They also gained more people from other provinces than any other metro: a net 11,742 for Edmonton and 11,195 for Calgary.¹⁵ Since July 1, 2021, the Calgary metro has grown 19.2% and Edmonton's 14.9%, by our calculation from the same estimates.¹³

If you've seen smaller numbers, they are probably from the 2021 census, which counted 1,481,806 people in the Calgary metro and 1,418,118 in Edmonton's.²² Census counts and the yearly estimates are separate series, so don't subtract one from the other to measure growth.

Cost of living in Calgary vs Edmonton: renting and owning

Renting

Edmonton is cheaper at every apartment size in CMHC's October 2025 survey of purpose-built rentals. A one-bedroom averaged $1,301 in Edmonton and $1,582 in Calgary. A two-bedroom averaged $1,603 and $1,914. Across all sizes the averages were $1,464 and $1,761.^1,2

Calgary renters have more to choose from. Calgary's vacancy rate held at 5.0% in 2025, and CMHC said the city's purpose-built rental supply grew 11%, "the fastest growth in decades." Edmonton's vacancy rate rose to 3.8%, up from 3.1%.^17,2

Those CMHC figures average what all tenants pay, including people on older leases. If you're moving, the price on current listings matters more. Statistics Canada put the average two-bedroom asking rent at $1,890 in Calgary and $1,570 in Edmonton in the second quarter of 2026. Calgary's asking rent fell 6.4% in a year, and Calgary listings now ask a little less than sitting tenants pay ($1,930). In Edmonton the two match, at $1,570.³ Statistics Canada calls these listing figures experimental and subject to revision.

Set against local income, 12 months of two-bedroom asking rent equals 19.5% of the 2023 median census-family income in Calgary and 16.5% in Edmonton (our calculation; the income figures are the latest from tax data).^3,16

Buying

The local real estate boards publish a benchmark price for a typical home through the MLS® Home Price Index. In September 2026, CREB put the City of Calgary's benchmark at $566,700, "nearly one per cent lower than last year."⁵ The REALTORS® Association of Edmonton publishes the City of Edmonton figure rounded, at $402,000, down 1.8% from a year earlier.⁴ For the wider Greater Edmonton Area, which the Edmonton board reports by default, the benchmark was $423,100.²³

The gap grows for houses. CREB's benchmark for a detached home in Calgary was $739,400.²⁴ The Edmonton board's single-family benchmark for the city was about $513,000.⁴ The two boards define those home types in their own ways, so read the difference, about $226,000, as rough. Apartments show a smaller dollar gap: a benchmark of $291,400 in Calgary and about $190,000 in Edmonton.^5,4

Property tax

Edmonton charges more tax for each dollar of assessed value. The 2026 total residential rate, city plus provincial education tax, is 0.0066499 in Calgary and 0.0103637 in Edmonton, so Edmonton's rate is about 56% higher (our calculation).^6,7 On a home assessed at $500,000 in each city, the bill would be $3,324.95 in Calgary and $5,181.85 in Edmonton, a difference of $1,856.90 a year.

Edmonton's cheaper houses cancel part of that. Calgary says the 2026 bill on its median single-detached home, assessed at $706,000, is $4,694.82.⁶ Edmonton's "typical household" is assessed at $492,500.²⁵ At Edmonton's rate, that bill comes to $5,104.12 (our calculation; the City publishes the assessment, not a total bill). The two cities pick their typical home in different ways, so the rate comparison is the fairer one.

Both bills went up this year. Calgary says the provincial share on its median home rose $338, or 21%, and the city share about $49.²⁶ Edmonton city council approved a 6.9% increase in the municipal tax levy for 2026.²⁵

Utilities and everyday prices

Electricity costs about the same. Alberta's default Rate of Last Resort, set until Dec. 31, 2026, is 12.06 cents per kWh from ENMAX in its Calgary service area and 12.01 cents from EPCOR in Edmonton's, for energy alone.²⁷ Garbage pickup costs more in Edmonton: $42.63 a month with a large 240-litre cart or $37.63 with a 120-litre cart.²⁸ Calgary charges $20.51 per 30 days for its black, blue and green carts.²⁹ Edmonton says its waste services are "funded entirely through your monthly utility rates, and no property taxes go toward these services."²⁸

Prices rose at about the same pace in both cities: 3.8% in Calgary and 3.7% in Edmonton in the year to August 2026, by our calculation from Statistics Canada's consumer price index.²¹ The index tracks change over time inside each city. It can't tell you which city is cheaper.

Jobs and pay in Calgary and Edmonton

Calgary's job market is bigger and a little stronger on the latest figures. Over June to August 2026, 1,046,300 people worked in the Calgary metro and 891,500 in Edmonton's. Unemployment was 6.7% and 6.9%. The employment rate, the share of people 15 and older with a job, was 66.5% and 64.2%.¹¹

Edmonton has closed most of the gap. A year earlier, over June to August 2025, unemployment was 7.5% in Calgary and 8.4% in Edmonton.¹¹ Across all of 2025, the averages were 7.4% and 7.7%.³⁰

We found no Statistics Canada table of average wages paid by city. The closest is the wage employers offer in job ads. In the second quarter of 2026 it averaged $28.40 an hour in the Calgary economic region and $27.90 in the Edmonton region. Edmonton had a little more hiring for its size, with a job vacancy rate of 3.1% against Calgary's 2.8%.¹²

Incomes lean toward Calgary. Census families had a median total income of $116,530 in Calgary and $114,130 in Edmonton in 2023, from tax returns.¹⁶ The 2021 census put median household income at $100,000 and $96,000, for 2020.³¹ Statistics Canada's smaller Canadian Income Survey shows a wider after-tax gap for 2024, $88,900 against $80,700, but its city estimates carry a margin of error and the gap moves around: for 2023 the same table shows $86,700 against $84,300.³²

None of these city-wide figures tells you much about demand for your own work. Job Bank, the federal job site, publishes wages and outlooks by occupation for each region of Alberta.³³

Crime and safety

Statistics Canada's Crime Severity Index measures "both crime volume relative to the population and the relative severity of all police-reported crimes."³⁴ In 2025 Calgary's index was 61.66 and Edmonton's 95.55, against 75.01 for Canada. For violent crime alone, the index was 68.49 in Calgary and 110.52 in Edmonton.⁸ Police recorded 5,038 crimes for every 100,000 people in the Calgary metro and 7,463 in Edmonton's.³⁵

Crime Severity Index, 2025

Police-reported crime weighted by seriousness, metro areas. Green bars are below Canada's index for the same measure; ember bars are above it.

• CalgaryOverall · Canada 75.0161.66
• EdmontonOverall · Canada 75.0195.55
• CalgaryViolent · Canada 97.1968.49
• EdmontonViolent · Canada 97.19110.52

0255075100

Both overall indexes fell in 2025, Edmonton's by 6.9% and Calgary's by 2.6%. Edmonton's violent crime index went the other way, up from 108.16 to 110.52, while Calgary's fell from 78.78 to 68.49.⁸

One number for a whole metro area hides big differences between neighbourhoods. Before you sign a lease, ask the local police service about the area you're looking at.

Weather: Edmonton's colder, longer winter

Edmonton's winters are colder and longer. Environment and Climate Change Canada's 1991-2020 normals put the January daily average at −7.6°C at Calgary's airport and −12.3°C at Edmonton's airport, south of the city. At Edmonton's Blatchford station, closer to downtown, January averages −10.3°C.^9,10,36 January nights average −13.5°C in Calgary and −18.1°C at Edmonton's airport.^9,10

The bigger difference is how many days stay below freezing. The daily high is at or below 0°C on 61.2 days a year in Calgary, 90.8 at Edmonton's airport and 86.3 at Blatchford.^9,10,36

Summers are close. July averages 16.9°C in Calgary, 16.2°C at Edmonton's airport and 18.1°C at Blatchford. Calgary gets more snow, 138.7 cm a year against 126.7 cm at Edmonton's airport. Edmonton has more days with rain or snow, 132.8 against 114.1.^9,10,36

Calgary carries more hail risk. Alberta's Automobile Insurance Rate Board, citing the Insurance Bureau of Canada, says an August 2024 hailstorm in Calgary caused $2.8 billion in insured damage.²⁰

Getting around

An adult monthly transit pass costs $126 in Calgary in 2026, up from $118 in 2025. Calgary Transit counts riders 18 and older as adults.^18,37 Edmonton's Arc card caps adult fares at $102 a month: you pay $3 a ride until you reach the cap. Edmonton's adult fare covers ages 19 to 64.¹⁹

Most people drive in both cities. In the 2021 census, 84.4% of Calgary commuters and 87.4% of Edmonton's went to work by car, truck or van. Public transit was the main way to work for 7.9% in Calgary and 6.1% in Edmonton, and light rail or commuter train for 2.7% and 0.9% (our calculations). Average commutes took 24.2 and 23.9 minutes.³⁸ The census ran in May 2021, when "millions of Canadians continued to work from home," so read those shares as a snapshot of an odd year.³⁹

Car insurance in Calgary vs Edmonton

Alberta's regulators publish no average car insurance premium by city. The Automobile Insurance Rate Board does publish loss ratios, the claims insurers paid out for each dollar of premium. For 2024, Calgary's was 119.0%, which the board says means "insurers paid out $1.19 for every $1.00 they received in premiums." Edmonton's was 100.0%, and Alberta's overall 97.1%. The board ties Calgary's higher figure to the August 2024 hailstorm.²⁰

The losses cluster in Calgary's northeast. Four postal areas there, T3P (Carrington), T3N (Jacksonport), T3K (Country Hills) and T3R (Sherwood), had loss ratios above 210%. Together they wrote $267 million in premiums and paid $663 million in losses. On comprehensive coverage alone, which pays for hail damage, insurers in Calgary's four most expensive postal areas took in $39 million and paid out $420 million. The board wrote that it foresees "availability concerns for some regions in Northeast Calgary who are regularly hit by these hailstorms."²⁰

Alberta's Grid, which sets the most an insurer can charge for basic coverage, treats Calgary and Edmonton as one territory: the base premium for $1 million in liability coverage is $3,980 from Jan. 1, 2026.⁴⁰ The board says fewer than 10% of Alberta drivers are rated on the Grid, mostly those with less than eight years of driving, and the province is repealing it on Jan. 1, 2027.⁴¹ For everyone else, the quote depends on your postal code, car and record. Our guide to the best car insurance in Alberta compares insurers' 2026 rate changes and complaint records.

What drivers who moved report

These comments come from Reddit threads we collected for our Alberta car insurance guide. They are anecdotes from people who chose to post, not a survey. Two things came up from people who had moved to or within the two cities.

The address changed the price, even inside the same metro area. That matches the board's data, which shows losses vary a lot by postal area.²⁰

Newcomers from abroad said insurers priced them as new drivers. One poster said a letter from a former insurer confirming years without claims brought the price down.

Living in Calgary vs Edmonton: which city suits you

The numbers point different ways for different people. Match them to the costs that weigh most in your own budget.

• You rent and want the lowest bill: Edmonton. A two-bedroom costs about $311 a month less in CMHC's survey and $320 less in current listings. Calgary's higher vacancy rate, 5.0% against 3.8%, means more listings to pick from.^1,2,3,17
• You want to buy a house: Edmonton, with a higher tax rate. At each board's benchmark, a detached or single-family home costs about $226,000 less in Edmonton. If each home were assessed at that benchmark, the 2026 tax bill would be about $4,917 in Calgary and $5,317 in Edmonton (our calculation).^24,4,6,7
• Crime is your main worry: Calgary. Its Crime Severity Index was 35% lower than Edmonton's in 2025, 61.66 against 95.55 (our calculation of the gap), and below the national 75.01.⁸
• You dread the cold: Calgary. January is 4.7°C milder at the airport, with about 30 fewer days that stay below freezing. Budget for hail: ask about comprehensive coverage and deductibles before you buy a car or a house in the northeast.^9,10,20
• You'll take the train to work: Calgary, at a price. More Calgary commuters used light rail in 2021, 2.7% against 0.9%, but its monthly pass costs $24 more than Edmonton's fare cap.^38,18,19
• Your job will decide it: look past the averages. Unemployment differs by 0.2 points. Check Job Bank for openings and wages in your own occupation in each region.^11,33

Before you move

• Price real listings. Search two-bedroom listings in the neighbourhoods you'd consider and set them against the asking rents above. In Calgary, listings were below what sitting tenants paid this spring.³
• Run the tax math on the house you want. Multiply the assessed value by 0.0066499 in Calgary or 0.0103637 in Edmonton for the 2026 total bill.^6,7 A lender will want that number too.
• Get insurance quotes for the new postal code. Northeast Calgary postal areas had the highest loss ratios in the province's 2025 report.²⁰
• Visit in January. Thirty-year averages tell you less than a week of −20°C mornings.
• Check the neighbourhood, not the metro. The Crime Severity Index covers each whole metro. Ask the local police service about the blocks you're looking at.

Before you trust other comparisons

Many Calgary vs Edmonton comparisons mix figures that don't line up. Check four things before you rely on one.

• Check the area. The Edmonton board's headline price, $423,100, covers the Greater Edmonton Area. Set against the City of Calgary, it shrinks the gap. The City of Edmonton figure was about $402,000.^23,4
• Check which rent. CMHC's averages include long-time tenants. Listing prices show what a newcomer pays. In Calgary the listing average was lower than the tenant average this spring; in most big cities it runs higher.³
• A price index is not a price level. Calgary's consumer price index (182.3 in August 2026) is higher than Edmonton's (177.2), but each index measures change since 2002 in its own city. A higher index doesn't mean higher prices.²¹
• Check the home. Calgary's "typical" tax bill uses a $706,000 median detached house; Edmonton's uses a $492,500 "typical household." Compare tax rates instead.^6,25

Common questions

How we did this

We chose measures that change what a move costs or how daily life feels, and took each from the agency that collects it: Statistics Canada for population, jobs, income, prices, commuting and crime; CMHC for rents and vacancies; the City of Calgary and City of Edmonton for tax rates and fees; Environment and Climate Change Canada for climate normals; Calgary Transit and Edmonton Transit Service for fares; Alberta's Utilities Consumer Advocate for electricity; and the Automobile Insurance Rate Board for insurance. Home prices come from the two real estate boards, which are industry bodies. We downloaded the Statistics Canada tables in full on Oct. 6, 2026, and checked every quote against the saved page.

Where agencies report the metro area, we used the metro area. For home prices we used the City of Calgary and the City of Edmonton, because those are the areas both boards publish. For Edmonton's climate we used the airport station in the table, since Calgary's normals also come from its airport, and give the Blatchford station near downtown in the text. Everything labelled "our calculation" is simple arithmetic on the cited figures: differences, shares, and tax bills from assessed value times the 2026 total residential rate. Consumer price changes are August 2026 over August 2025 from the published indexes.

We left out some things on purpose. We found no official count of chinook days or sunshine hours in the 1991-2020 normals, so neither appears. Water bills are not comparable, because Calgary publishes a full typical bill and EPCOR publishes usage charges without fixed fees. Alberta publishes no average car insurance premium by city.

We did not run a new Reddit search for this page. The four comments quoted in the car insurance section come from three threads we collected for our Alberta car insurance guide, posted between Nov. 18, 2025 and Aug. 1, 2026 in r/Calgary and r/Edmonton. We found no first-hand accounts in that collection about rent, jobs or daily life in the two cities, so this version quotes none on those topics. We link each quote and leave out usernames.

No city, real estate board or insurer paid for this page, and it has no affiliate links. We will update it when new rent, jobs, crime or price data come out, and log each change below.

The 3 Reddit threads we quote

• 11+ year clean driver record, cheapest auto insurance quote is $300/month. Is that normal? r/Calgary, Dec. 5, 2025
• Car insurance recommendations? r/Edmonton, Aug. 1, 2026
• Newcomer to Edmonton and Canada. Car insurance quotes are insane. r/Edmonton, Nov. 18, 2025

Sources

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37. Calgary Transit. "Calgary Transit fares changing for 2026." Viewed Oct. 6, 2026. www.calgarytransit.com/news/calgary-transit-fares-changing-for-2026.html
38. Statistics Canada. "Table 98-10-0457-01. Main mode of commuting by commuting duration, time leaving for work, age and gender (2021 Census)." Released Nov. 30, 2022. www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=9810045701
39. Statistics Canada. "Has the COVID-19 pandemic changed commuting patterns for good? The Daily." Nov. 30, 2022. www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/221130/dq221130c-eng.htm
40. Automobile Insurance Rate Board (Alberta). "Order 01-2025: 2025 Annual Grid Review, Grid base premiums effective Jan. 1, 2026 (PDF)." Sept. 26, 2025. www.airbfordrivers.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Order-01-2025.pdf
41. Automobile Insurance Rate Board (Alberta). "Grid rating system." Viewed Oct. 6, 2026. www.airbfordrivers.ca/albertas-insurance-system/grid-rating-system/

Update log

• Oct. 7, 2026, 2:45 a.m. ETFirst published. Jobs data to August 2026, home prices to September 2026, rents to the second quarter of 2026, crime data for 2025.

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