Toronto city webpage ranks 2nd place worldwide

Jan 24, 2013 | News

Toronto City Hall has one of the best webpages in the world. By Stefan Powell (Flickr) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Toronto City Hall has one of the best webpages in the world according to a new survey. By Stefan Powell (Flickr) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Compiled by Jonathan Zettel

The City of Toronto’s website has been ranked second in a worldwide search for the best municipal government website.

In a report produced by Rutgers University-Newark and Kent State University, Toronto placed second only to Seoul, South Korea.

“We’ve made it easy to access City Hall by visiting our website that provides information about municipal programs, services, initiatives, online payment options, and online public feedback opportunities,” Mayor Rob Ford said in a press release.

The study looked at 2011-12 and evaluated 92 of the world’s largest cities for content, privacy and security, usability, and services, to gauge where municipal governments are with respect to opening up accessibility via the web.

Toronto scored 64.31 while first place Seoul, Korea scored 82.23. The average score across the world was 33.76.

In 2007 Toronto was rated 12th with a score of 51.99.

In the report, released earlier this month, Toronto placed first overall in the category of content.

“The website of Toronto also provides disability access for the deaf and blind. All of these aspects make the city’s website more transparent and efficient,” the report noted.

This release coincides with Toronto’s annual Red Tape Awareness Week where the city aims to improve customer service.

“We have reduced wait times, improved customer service and developed new initiatives to help businesses save time and money,” the mayor said in a press release on Monday.