1. Vienna
2. Melbourne
3. Sydney
4. Osaka
5. Calgary
6. Vancouver
7. Toronto
8. Tokyo
9. Copenhagen
10. Adelaide
Last year's thread
& some report pages
Imagine thinking Calgary or Toronto or Osaka is better than Tokyo 🤔
2. Melbourne
3. Sydney
4. Osaka
5. Calgary
6. Vancouver
7. Toronto
8. Tokyo
9. Copenhagen
10. Adelaide
Vienna prides itself on its abundance of music and art, its grand architecture and its one-of-a-kind Kaffeehauskultur. According to an annual index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a sister company of The Economist, the Austrian capital is the most liveable city in the world for the second year running. On the EIU's index, which ranks 140 cities on 30 factors bunched into five categories—stability, health care, culture and environment, education and infrastructure—Vienna scores a near-perfect 99.1 out of 100, putting it just ahead of Melbourne. Sydney and Osaka fill the next two spots in a top ten dominated by Australian, Canadian and Japanese cities. Higher crime rates and ropey infrastructure pull some bigger cities like London, New York and Paris down the league table, despite their cultural and culinary attractions.
Overall, scores have gone up since last year. In all, 27 cities have become more liveable by the EIU's reckoning, whereas 15 saw their scores fall. The biggest improvement came in San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico, which rose 20 places to 69th—but that owed much to investments in health care and infrastructure after the devastation wrought by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017. Sydney, the only climber in the top ten, went up by two places thanks to an improvement in its environment score. The Australian city is working to combat the impacts of climate change, outlined in its "Sustainable Sydney 2030" strategy. By contrast, worsening air pollution caused New Delhi to drop six places to 118th and Cairo to fall two places to 125th.
Last year's thread
& some report pages
Vienna remains the most liveable of the 140 cities surveyed by The Economist Intelligence Unit. After displacing Melbourne from the top spot in 2018, ending a record run of seven consecutive years, Vienna retained its position at the head of the survey in 2019. The two cities continue to be separated by 0.7 percentage points, with Vienna scoring 99.1 out of 100 and Melbourne 98.4. Two other Australian cities feature in the top ten: Sydney (in third) and Adelaide (tenth), while only one other European city, Copenhagen in Denmark (ninth), scores among the best. The other top ranked cities are split between Japan (Osaka in fourth and Tokyo in joint seventh) and Canada (Calgary in fifth, and Vancouver and Toronto in sixth and joint seventh, respectively). The cities within the top ten remain unchanged from our previous update, but there has been some movement in their ranking. Sydney has risen from fifth to third, thanks to an improvement in its culture and environment score, reflecting an increased focus on combating and mitigating the impacts of climate change, as outlined by the city's "Sustainable Sydney 2030" strategy. However, Sydney remains behind its great rival, Melbourne. With both cities already scoring very highly across all categories, there is only limited potential for Sydney to displace either Melbourne or Vienna at the top of the rankings. No other city in the top ten saw a change to its score.
Imagine thinking Calgary or Toronto or Osaka is better than Tokyo 🤔
