In a list of the most liveable cities in the world, the popular major ones such as New York, San Francisco and London don’t even make it to the top ten.
Instead, it’s the likes of Melbourne, Vienna, Vancouver, Helsinki and more who are determined to be the best cities to live in, according to the latest findings of The Economist Intelligence Unit.
The Economist Intelligence Unit’s liveability rating quantifies the challenges that might be presented to an individual’s lifestyle across five broad categories of Stability, Healthcare, Culture & Environment, Education and Infrastructure. That’s why global business centres like New York, Paris, London and Tokyo don’t top the list — these finance hubs suffer from higher crime rates, congestion and public transportation issues.
Singapore doesn’t fare that well either. Ranked 46th in the world, the city-state did climb up a couple of positions — but only because of other cities declining in liveability. In fact, Singapore even beat Hong Kong by having better infrastructure, but received penalties for its warm, humid climate and censorship. Hoo boy, aren’t we real familiar with those things.
“Both Hong Kong and Singapore have presented relatively stable environments over the last 12 months shown by their movement up the rankings, despite unchanged scores,” said Jon Copestake, editor of the survey. “This contrasts with Hong Kong’s fall last year following pro-democracy protests, but also shows how global terrorism, unrest and political disputes are affecting liveability elsewhere.”
Australia and Canada win big, possessing six of the top 10 liveable cities in the world. Melbourne is found to be the best city to live in, scoring highly in infrastracture, education, healthcare and culture as well. On the other end of the spectrum, Damascus in Syria is definitely not the place to live in right now, scoring very low in all categories, especially in terms of stability.
