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Vienna has been declared the number one city in the annual Global Liveability Index for the second year in a row, narrowly beating Melbourne.
The Economist Intelligence Unit's 2019 ranking examined five categories – stability; healthcare; culture and environment; education; and infrastructure – in 140 destinations.
After displacing Melbourne from the top spot in 2018, ending a record run of seven consecutive years, the Austrian capital once again prevailed this year. But only just. The two cities continue to be separated by 0.7 percentage points, with Vienna scoring 99.1 out of 100 and Melbourne 98.4.
Melbourne missed out on being named the world's most liveable city by a narrow margin. Photo: Leigh Henningham
Two other Australian cities feature in the top 10: Sydney (in third, just 0.2 points behind Melbourne and climbing two spots) 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).
London languished in 48th, holding the same spot as last year, with overstretched infrastructure and high crime rates to blame. Paris is the most high-profile city to fall in the rankings, dropping 6 places to 25th, but remains well ahead of Singapore (40th) and New York (58th).
Propping up the table was Damascus with a score of 30.7 – the same as last year. Others in the bottom five include Lagos in Nigeria, Dhaka in Bangladesh, Tripoli in Libya and Karachi in Pakistan.
Overall though, scores generally rose for the third consecutive year, reflecting, the report states, "a slight diminishing of the perceived threat of terrorism, after a period of acute concern. Some of these improvements have been considerable but from a very low base (such as Tripoli in Libya and Jakarta in Indonesia), while others have seen smaller improvements to already acceptable scores (such as Seattle and Houston in the US, and Seoul in South Korea)."
The biggest improvers over the last five years, in terms of overall score, are as follows: Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire, Hanoi in Vietnam, Kiev in Ukraine and Belgrade in Serbia; all having seen increases of 5 percentage points or more.
In less encouraging news, this year was the first that climate change has had a significant impact on liveability scores. The report states: "A slew of cities in emerging markets that are among the most exposed to the effects of climate change have seen their scores downgraded. These include New Delhi in India, which suffers from appalling air quality, Cairo in Egypt (where air quality is also a major issue) and Dhaka in Bangladesh.
"The incidence of extreme weather events, such as flooding and heatwaves, is rising around the world, and cities in emerging markets are often the most directly affected and the least resilient. That said, we see climate change as a global phenomenon, which threatens the liveability of cities at the very top of the index too. Only a co-ordinated global effort to limit the rising temperature of the planet will succeed in maintaining current levels of liveability across the world."
While this was the second year that that Vienna topped The Economist Intelligence Unit's survey, a rival ranking –Mercer's Quality of Living Index 2019 – has put the Austrian city at number one for ten consecutive years.
Earlier this week, The Economist also released the results of its Safe Cities Index 2019, naming Tokyo the safest city in the world, followed by Singapore and Osaka. London this year placed 14th, up from 20th last year.
Sydney came in third place, just 0.2 points behind Melbourne. Photo: Louie Douvis
The world's top 10 most liveable cities for 2019
The Economist Intelligence Unit's 2019 ranking examined five categories – stability; healthcare; culture and environment; education; and infrastructure – in 140 destinations.
After displacing Melbourne from the top spot in 2018, ending a record run of seven consecutive years, the Austrian capital once again prevailed this year. But only just. The two cities continue to be separated by 0.7 percentage points, with Vienna scoring 99.1 out of 100 and Melbourne 98.4.
Melbourne missed out on being named the world's most liveable city by a narrow margin. Photo: Leigh Henningham
Two other Australian cities feature in the top 10: Sydney (in third, just 0.2 points behind Melbourne and climbing two spots) 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).
London languished in 48th, holding the same spot as last year, with overstretched infrastructure and high crime rates to blame. Paris is the most high-profile city to fall in the rankings, dropping 6 places to 25th, but remains well ahead of Singapore (40th) and New York (58th).
Propping up the table was Damascus with a score of 30.7 – the same as last year. Others in the bottom five include Lagos in Nigeria, Dhaka in Bangladesh, Tripoli in Libya and Karachi in Pakistan.
Overall though, scores generally rose for the third consecutive year, reflecting, the report states, "a slight diminishing of the perceived threat of terrorism, after a period of acute concern. Some of these improvements have been considerable but from a very low base (such as Tripoli in Libya and Jakarta in Indonesia), while others have seen smaller improvements to already acceptable scores (such as Seattle and Houston in the US, and Seoul in South Korea)."
The biggest improvers over the last five years, in terms of overall score, are as follows: Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire, Hanoi in Vietnam, Kiev in Ukraine and Belgrade in Serbia; all having seen increases of 5 percentage points or more.
In less encouraging news, this year was the first that climate change has had a significant impact on liveability scores. The report states: "A slew of cities in emerging markets that are among the most exposed to the effects of climate change have seen their scores downgraded. These include New Delhi in India, which suffers from appalling air quality, Cairo in Egypt (where air quality is also a major issue) and Dhaka in Bangladesh.
"The incidence of extreme weather events, such as flooding and heatwaves, is rising around the world, and cities in emerging markets are often the most directly affected and the least resilient. That said, we see climate change as a global phenomenon, which threatens the liveability of cities at the very top of the index too. Only a co-ordinated global effort to limit the rising temperature of the planet will succeed in maintaining current levels of liveability across the world."
While this was the second year that that Vienna topped The Economist Intelligence Unit's survey, a rival ranking –Mercer's Quality of Living Index 2019 – has put the Austrian city at number one for ten consecutive years.
Earlier this week, The Economist also released the results of its Safe Cities Index 2019, naming Tokyo the safest city in the world, followed by Singapore and Osaka. London this year placed 14th, up from 20th last year.
Sydney came in third place, just 0.2 points behind Melbourne. Photo: Louie Douvis
The world's top 10 most liveable cities for 2019
- Vienna (Austria) - 99.1 (=)
- Melbourne (Australia) - 98.4 (=)
- Sydney (Australia) - 98.1 (+2)
- Osaka (Japan) - 97.7 (-1)
- Calgary (Canada) - 97.5 (-1)
- Vancouver (Canada) - 97.3 (=)
- Toronto (Canada) - 97.2 (=)
- Tokyo (Japan) - 97.2 (=)
- Copenhagen (Denmark) - 96.8 (=)
- Adelaide (Australia) - 96.6 (=)
- Damascus (Syria) - 30.7
- Lagos (Nigeria) - 38.5
- Dhaka (Bangladesh) - 39.2
- Tripoli (Libya) - 40.4
- Karachi (Pakistan) - 40.9
- Port Moresby (PNG) - 41
- Harare (Zimbabwe) - 42.6
- Douala (Cameroon) - 44
- Algiers (Algeria) - 44.1
- Caracas (Venezuela) - 46.9
