Loading ...Melbourne, Australia claimed title to the most livable city in the world in The Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) annual Summary of the Liveability Rankings and Overview 2013 study.
Of the 140 countries surveyed, Melbourne topped this year’s list, followed by Vienna, Austria and Vancouver, Canada. Melbourne also was number one in the 2012 study. Vienna and Vancouver have occupied their positions for the second year in a row. Vancouver was ranked number one in 2011.
The EIU study assesses which world cities provide the best or worst living conditions to help primarily corporations assess employee pay scales by location. Livability ratings quantify the challenges that might be presented to an expat lifestyle in any given location and allows for direct comparison between locations. The ranking data, however, is very useful information for anyone making a move abroad. If you would like the complete report, it may be purchased at the EIU store.
How are the rankings quantified? EIU assigns each city a rating of relative comfort for over 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five broad categories: Stability (25 percent weight), Healthcare (20 percent weight), Culture and Environment (25 percent weight), Education (10 percent weight) and Infrastructure (20 percent weight).
For example, under the Stability category there are five factors evaluated: prevalence of petty crime, prevalence of violent crime, threat of terror, threat of military conflict and threat of civil unrest/conflict.
Each factor in a city is rated as acceptable, tolerable, uncomfortable, undesirable or intolerable. For qualitative indicators, a rating is awarded based on the judgment of EIU analysts and in-city contributors.
For the very top tier of cities - those with scores over 80 percent - there was little change from a year ago. There were 64 cities EIU named as top tier for livability, ranging from number one Melbourne to number sixty-four Santiago, Chile. The study pointed out that both cities could lay claim to being pretty much on an equal footing, presenting few, if any, challenges to expat lifestyles.
Those that scored best were mostly mid-sized cities in wealthier countries with relatively low population densities. Eight of the top 10 cities are in Australia and Canada.
The study showed that violent crime is on the upswing in the top tier of cities, but said the data need to be put in perspective. For example, Melbourne recorded murder rates of 2.7 per 100,000 population in 2011, while New York averaged 4.8 homicides during the same time period. Scores given for all categories were compared to New York, which served as the study’s reference point.
Faring less well in the rankings were large metropolitan areas like New York (56), London (55), Paris (17) and Tokyo (18). All suffer from higher levels of crime, congestion and public transportation issues. Higher wages, cost of living and personal taste for a city can, however, offset livability factors, the study concluded. All four cities still reside within the top tier of global city livability.
On a more negative note, the EIU study found that major cities in China have declined in relative livability as a result of outbreaks of unrest across the country, often caused by anti-Japanese sentiment. Labor disputes and other issues also have contributed to the decline. Suzhou (73), Beijing (74), Tianjin (75), Shanghai (83) and Shenzhen (85) were cities affected by unrest in China.
The biggest overall declines in livability during the last five years of the study were in Damascus, Syria (140), Tripoli, Libya (133) and Cairo, Egypt (122). Cities with the most improved livability since 2008 were Bogota, Colombia (111), Harare, Zimbabwe (136) and Dubai, UAE (77).
Top-Tier City Livability Rankings
1. Melbourne, Australia
2. Vienna, Austria
3. Vancouver, Canada
4. Toronto, Canada
5. Calgary, Canada
6. Adelaide, Australia
7. Sydney, Australia
8. Helsinki, Finland
9. Perth, Australia
10. Auckland, New Zealand
11. Zurich, Switzerland
12. Geneva, Switzerland
13. Osaka, Japan
14. Stockholm, Sweden
15. Hamburg, Germany
16. Montreal, Canada
17. Paris, France
18. Tokyo, Japan
19. Frankfurt, Germany
20. Brisbane, Australia
21. Berlin, Germany
22. Copenhagen, Denmark
23. Wellington, New Zealand
24. Oslo, Norway
25. Luxembourg, Luxembourg
26. Amsterdam, Netherlands
27. Honolulu, U.S.
28. Brussels, Belgium
29. Munich, Germany
30. Pittsburgh, U.S.
31. Hong Kong, China
32. Dusseldorf, Germany
33. Lyon, France
34. Barcelona, Spain
35. Washington, D.C., U.S.
36. Chicago, U.S.
37. Atlanta, U.S.
38. Miami, U.S.
39. Detroit, U.S.
40. Boston, U.S.
41. Seattle, U.S.
42. Minneapolis, U.S.
43. Los Angeles, U.S
44. Madrid, Spain
45. Cleveland, U.S.
46. Dublin, Ireland
47. Houston, U.S.
48. Milan, Italy
49. Rome, Italy
50. Budapest, Hungary
51. Manchester, U.K.
52. San Francisco, U.S.
53. Singapore, Singapore
54. Reykjavik, Iceland
55. London, U.K.
56. New York, U.S.
57. Lisbon, Portugal
58. Seoul, South Korea
59. Lexington, U.S.
60. Prague, Czech Republic
61. Taipei, Taiwan
62. Buenos Aires, Argentina
63. Bratislava, Slovakia
64. Santiago, Chile