OH, VIENNA The world’s most livable cities in 2019
Global index for livability finds that medium size is best
● Time to tell your smug New York friends that they’ve made the wrong life choice: the world’s most livable cities are generally less global capital, more regional second city, a new ranking shows.
Vienna took the No 1 spot in the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) livability ranking for the second year running, confirming that life is officially better on the banks of the Danube than it is by the Yarra River in Melbourne, which took second place.
Australia and Canada dominate the top 10 with three cities each, while Osaka, Tokyo and Copenhagen complete the list.
Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide are judged to offer the antipodes’ best quality of life, while Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto are North America’s top locations.
“Overall, our index remains dominated by medium-sized cities in wealthy countries,” the report notes, pointing to high-quality education, well-funded public health care and functional transport systems.
These cities — with populations that number anywhere from 300,000 to one million — hit the sweet spot between overcrowded and underdeveloped.
“The upsides of these cities tend to be fully realised. You get a good collection of cultural activities, you get good access to health care and education,” said EIU’s regional director for Asia, Duncan Innes-Ker.
“But you don’t get a lot of downsides that tend to come with big cities, things like traffic congestion, crime problems and general wear and tear.”
Financial hubs London (No 48) and New York (No 58) lagged behind other rivals. Hong Kong and Singapore fared better — but not much, charting at No 38 and No 40 respectively.
Hong Kong’s ranking overlooked for now the recent political unrest, but the disruption will likely show up next year.
“I think it’s probably safe to say that Hong Kong’s rating will suffer quite significantly,” Innes-Ker said.
The index examines the quality of health care, education, infrastructure, stability and culture. Each city is graded on more than 30 factors, which are then compiled into a weighted score of between 1 and 100.
At 99.1, Vienna’s 2019 livability score is almost perfect. Melburnians and others shouldn’t feel too put out: the scores among the top 20 cities vary by less than five points. No US city made it higher than No 22. Across the board, the report points to improved quality of living, thanks to strengthened stability, as well as better education and health-care systems.
But climate change puts these gains at risk, the report said, noting that cities such as New Delhi and Cairo have slipped down the rankings as a result of worsening pollution.
The report scored Johannesburg and Pretoria 71.6 and 69.3 respectively.
Sitting at the bottom of the 140-city list are Dhaka, Lagos and Damascus, with the war-torn Syrian capital retaining the last position for the past seven years.