Winnipeg earned an A grade when it comes to the health performance of the city and its citizens, according to a new ranking comparing 10 Canadian cities.

The Conference Board of Canada released its first-ever City Health Monitor report on Tuesday, with Winnipeg scoring top marks largely because of the access-to-health-care category.

The city came in third for the overall ranking, following Calgary and Saskatoon.

The report assigned grades for the physical and socio-economic health of the cities based on 24 indicators in four categories:

Life satisfaction.

Population health.

Healthy lifestyle.

Access to health-care services.

Access to health-care services pushed Winnipeg up the rankings.

"Winnipeg is at the top on the relative number of hospital beds indicator and places slightly behind the leader on the number of specialists per 100,000 population and access to a regular doctor," the report said.

The overall grade was dragged down by the city's healthy lifestyle D because there are not enough fruits and vegetables in a Winnipeg diet.

Winnipeg earned an A grade when it comes to the health performance of the city and its citizens, according to a new ranking comparing 10 Canadian cities. 2:22

For the other categories, the report said that Winnipeggers are largely satisfied with life in general but scored low on perceived mental health. However, Winnipeg scored well in population health with relatively low rates of mood disorder and heart disease.

Saskatoon grabbed the top overall spot due to its life satisfaction and relative strength in population health and healthy lifestyle. Montreal finished at the bottom and was the only city to receive an overall grade of D.

Benchmarking isn't the end, the Conference Board of Canada warned in the report. It is intended to highlight strengths and weaknesses to investigate possible improvements.