The Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) annual livability survey just hit the streets and once again Australia and Canada rule the livability world.
The survey assesses which of 140 cities around the world provide the best or the worst living conditions based on criteria within five categories, each with a specific weighting: Stability (25 percent), Healthcare (20 percent), Culture and Environment (25 percent), Education (10 percent) and Infrastructure (20 percent).
Perennial winner Melbourne, Australia remains the most livable city of those surveyed, followed by Vienna, Austria. Long-time favorite Vancouver, Canada was number three this year. Rounding out the top 10, in descending order, are Toronto, Canada; Adelaide, Australia; Calgary, Canada; Sydney, Australia; Helsinki, Finland; Perth, Australia; and, Auckland, New Zealand.
We feature profiles of each of these cities in our Countries section, except for Helsinki and Vienna (Austria, though, will be added soon to our list of countries).
Melbourne scored an overall rating of 97.5 and Auckland 95.7, so all top 10 cities were comparable. EIU reports that the average global livability score is 75.3 percent.
There is minimal variation between the scores of the top locations, which EIU says is the top 64 cities. Less than 17 percent separates the overall scores of Melbourne and the sixty-fourth ranked city, Santiago, Chile.
All of the top-ranked cities have something In common: they tend to be mid-sized cities in wealthier countries with relatively low population densities. EIU says this can foster a range of recreational activities without leading to high crime levels or overburdened infrastructure.
New York, London, Paris and Tokyo all are in the top 64 cities, but suffer from higher levels of crime and public transportation problems.
Since the last survey, only 20 cities have seen changes, mostly influenced by instability. Localized instability, for example, has affected Bangkok’s overall rating.
The terrible 10 cities on EIU’s livability index are led by Damascus, Syria with an overall rating of 30.5 percent and very low scores on all measures. The other bottom 10 countries are, in ascending order, Dhaka, Bangladesh; Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea; Lagos, Nigeria; Karachi, Pakistan; Algiers, Algeria; Harare, Zimbabwe; Douala, Cameroon; Tripoli, Libya; and, Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.