Coquitlam might be a mid-sized city on B.C.'s west coast, but it appears to have an out-sized personality when it comes to rudeness.
At least, that's the claim from a survey of 1,518 people undertaken by the e-learning platform Preply.
From July 24 to 28, 2023, Canadian residents in 44 cities were asked to rank rude behaviours in their community on a scale of one to 10.
Coquitlam scored 7.85, making it the second-rudest city in Canada behind Vaughan, Ont., scoring 8.05 on the rudeness scale.
The Tri-Cities municipality also scored more than two points higher than the national average, 5.41.
Brampton, Ont., which scored 7.05, is in the third spot.
You can view Preply's 10 rudest cities in Canada below.
To participate in the survey, conducted by Censuswide, residency of at least 12 months was required.
In its news release, Preply speculated that residents may be more rude in Coquitlam because of the weather and topography.
"Coquitlam has a bit of a reputation for being damp and having some of the steepest hills around Vancouver, which may leave residents feeling moody and less inclined to fulfill the polite stereotype," the company writes.
Still, there are some interesting findings about Coquitlam residents, which could spark some conversation.
According to the survey, the most common rude behaviours for Coquitlam residents include:
- Being absorbed by their phone in public,
- Not letting people merge in traffic,
- Not standing up for elderly or pregnant people on public transport.
What about swearing?
Coquitlam residents are also potty-mouthed, according to the data.
Out of the 44 communities surveyed, Coquitlam ranked 13th for the cities that swear the most, cursing nine times a day on average.
But Coquitlam residents follow up with a lot of apologies — on average, Coquitlam residents say "sorry" eight times a day, less than the Canadian average of nine times a day.
offers online tutoring in multiple languages and its press release states that how we speak to one another is important.
Canadians are still pretty polite, the survey results show.
"While our study may have outlined some cities that are ruder than others, it’s important to note that overall, Canadians are relatively polite in public. With an average rudeness score of 5.41 on our scale of one to ten (ten being the rudest) and a strong tendency to apologize, Canada’s reputation still rings true."
Key findings:
- The top three rudest cities in Canada are Vaughan, Coquitlam, and Brampton.
- The most populous cities, Toronto (5.91), Vancouver (5.35), and Montreal (5.05), ranked 16th, 20th and 28th respectively.
- The most common rude behaviours in Canada include people being absorbed by their phones, being noisy in public, and not letting people merge in traffic.
- Burlingtonians hold the title of swearing the most, as well as apologizing the most!
- According to the findings, Markham is the most polite city.
- Of the 44 cities we surveyed, Markham (2.91), Saguenay (3.87), Cape Breton (3.88), and Chatham-Kent (3.93) are the most polite.
- Over four in five Canadians agree with the stereotype that Canadians are polite.
Here are Canada's 10 rudest cities, according to Preply:
- Vaughan
- Coquitlam
- Brampton
- Surrey
- Windsor
- Thunder Bay
- Regina
- Edmonton
- Sudbury
- Winnipeg
