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Nordic winters are tame compared to those in places like northern north America. I live in a town that regularly dips below -40c. But a very cold winter is no

Nordic winters are tame compared to those in places like northern north America. I live in a town that regularly dips below -40c. But a very cold winter is nothing compared to a very hot summer. Look at how many people die in heat waves. Rarely does a cold snap result in more than a handful of deaths, and most of those will be traffic-related. Heat waves can result in hundreds dead very easily. I'll take a Canadian or Norwegian winter over a Texas summer any day. Parts of Canada are actually about to mandate air conditioning (aka active cooling) in new buildings in recognition of the danger that summer heat can pose in Canada. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/heat-dome-retrofit-building-codes-passive-cooling-1.6488244 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/heat-dome-retrofit-building-c...

haihaibye 4y ago
Cold kills almost 10x more than heat https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/climate-change/extreme-temperatures-kill-5-million-a-year-20-year-study-77875 https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/climate-change/extreme-t... > The study found that extreme heat and cold killed 5.08 million people on an average every year from 2000-2019. Of this, 4.6 million deaths on an average occurred annually due to extreme cold while 0.48 million deaths occurred due to extreme heat.
- sandworm101 4y ago
  In India and sub-Saharan Africa. This article is about livable cities, all of which are in countries where heating is not much of an issue. Canada, a country that knows cold and hosts many of the cities on this list, looses maybe a hundred people a year to cold. But BC recently lost nearly 500 to heat in a single heat wave. In the developed world, heat is far more a problem than cold. "In Canada, more than 80 people die each year from over-exposure to the cold." https://www.ottawapublichealth.ca/en/public-health-topics/cold-weather-everyone.aspx https://www.ottawapublichealth.ca/en/public-health-topics/co...
  - quintushoratius 4y ago
    It could just be bias in the data. In Canada and northern US, you expect the cold and plan accordingly. In sub-Saharan Africa, you expect the heat and plan accordingly. It's when the conditions flip-flop (hot Canada, cold Africa) that people run into trouble.
jjav 4y ago
> But a very cold winter is nothing compared to a very hot summer. Goes right back to how subjective livability is. The above statement might be true for you. For me I'm unhappy at anything below 80F and downright miserable below 60F. Any city that gets weather below freezing is completely out, regardless of all other factors. Live is too short to spend most of it freezing. All the top 5 in this economist list are freezing places, hard nope from me to all of them.

haihaibye 4y ago

Cold kills almost 10x more than heat https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/climate-change/extreme-temperatures-kill-5-million-a-year-20-year-study-77875 https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/climate-change/extreme-t... > The study found that extreme heat and cold killed 5.08 million people on an average every year from 2000-2019. Of this, 4.6 million deaths on an average occurred annually due to extreme cold while 0.48 million deaths occurred due to extreme heat.

sandworm101 4y ago
In India and sub-Saharan Africa. This article is about livable cities, all of which are in countries where heating is not much of an issue. Canada, a country that knows cold and hosts many of the cities on this list, looses maybe a hundred people a year to cold. But BC recently lost nearly 500 to heat in a single heat wave. In the developed world, heat is far more a problem than cold. "In Canada, more than 80 people die each year from over-exposure to the cold." https://www.ottawapublichealth.ca/en/public-health-topics/cold-weather-everyone.aspx https://www.ottawapublichealth.ca/en/public-health-topics/co...
- quintushoratius 4y ago
  It could just be bias in the data. In Canada and northern US, you expect the cold and plan accordingly. In sub-Saharan Africa, you expect the heat and plan accordingly. It's when the conditions flip-flop (hot Canada, cold Africa) that people run into trouble.

jjav 4y ago

> But a very cold winter is nothing compared to a very hot summer. Goes right back to how subjective livability is. The above statement might be true for you. For me I'm unhappy at anything below 80F and downright miserable below 60F. Any city that gets weather below freezing is completely out, regardless of all other factors. Live is too short to spend most of it freezing. All the top 5 in this economist list are freezing places, hard nope from me to all of them.