The city of Charlottetown has tied for first place on a list of the best places to live in the country.

According to Maclean's magazine, Charlottetown tied with Halifax on the list of 415 communities after ranking 233rd on the 2019 list. Maclean's changed its methodology for this year's list to take the pandemic into consideration.

"I'm so proud of this city, but mostly I'm proud of our people and that includes our residents, our business owners and operators and everybody that contributes to the greatness of the place where we live," said Mayor Philip Brown.

Within the new methodology, the magazine assumed remote work is here to stay and added new categories like internet accessibility. The ranking shows P.E.I.'s top features are internet access, amenities and population growth.

"Fibre optic is available for use in urban areas and everything is close to where you want to get your groceries, go to your drug store, pick up the essentials," the mayor said, adding the city also ranked high on community engagement.

In an article explaining its methods, Maclean's also said it removed rent data from the affordability category, operating under the assumption that rent and property prices are closely correlated. It also removed categories assessing the local economy, assuming remote workers do not need to look for a nearby job.

The publication also looked at housing affordability, taxes, crime, weather and health statistics.

"When you look at the city of Charlottetown and just the adaptability of the residents, how we took on the mask issue, how we adhered to keeping that physical distance … I hope that continues as we get through this pandemic, and we will get through it and we're going to get through this together," Brown said.

Brown said next year's goal would be to "be solely in first place."