If you live in Melbourne, Australia, congratulations! For the fifth consecutive year, your city ranks No. 1 on The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Livability Ranking, which scores 140 cities across the globe on livability.
Livability scores are based on weightings for the lifestyle challenges of Stability (25 percent), Healthcare (20 percent), Culture & Environment (25 percent), Education (10 percent) and Infrastructure (20 percent). With Stability, threats of terrorism and social unrest were key to the decline in livability rankings for 29 of the 140 cities surveyed, a drop of 20 percent during the past 12 months.
Cities in Australia and Canada grabbed six of the 10 top spots for livability. Here are lists of the top 10 most and least livable cities, according to the report:
Top 10 most livable cities
1. Melbourne, Australia
2. Vienna, Austria
3. Vancouver, Canada
4. Toronto, Canada
5. Calgary, Canada (tie)
5. Adelaide, Australia (tie)
7. Perth, Australia
8. Auckland, New Zealand
9. Helsinki, Finland
10. Hamburg, Germany
Top 10 least livable cities
1. Damascus, Syria
2. Tripoli, Libya
3. Lagos, Nigeria
4. Dhaka, Bangladesh
5. Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
6. Algiers, Algeria (tie)
6. Karachi, Pakistan (tie)
8. Harare, Zimbabwe
9. Douala, Cameroon
10. Kiev, Ukraine
The report also looks at the cities with the biggest five-year livability score gains (Dubai, Warsaw and Honolulu) and declines (Detroit, Moscow, Paris and Athens).
The views, statements and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Institutional Real Estate, Inc.
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Jennifer Molloy is senior editor of Institutional Real Estate Asia Pacific.
