The most and least liveable cities in the world
The Economist Intelligence Unit has released its ranking of the 10 most and least liveable cities in the world – highlighting the best and worst living conditions in countries across the globe.
The concept of liveability is to assess which locations around the world provide the best or the worst living conditions.
Assessing liveability has a broad range of uses, from benchmarking perceptions of development levels to assigning a hardship allowance as part of expatriate relocation
packages.
The Economist Intelligence Unit’s liveability rating quantifies the challenges that might be
presented to an individual’s lifestyle in any given location, and allows for direct comparison between locations.
According to the group, Melbourne, Australia is the most liveable city in the world with an ideal living score of 97.5 (where 100 is perfect). The rest of the top 5 remains unchanged from previous years, with Melbourne followed by Vienna (Austria) and three Canadian cities – Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary.
On the other end of the spectrum, war-torn Damascus, Syria, is the least liveable, with an ideal living score of 30.2.
The most and least liveable cities in the world
| # | City | Country | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Melbourne | Australia | 97.5 |
| 2 | Vienna | Austria | 97.4 |
| 3 | Vancouver | Canada | 97.3 |
| 4 | Toronto | Canada | 97.2 |
| 5 | Calgary | Canada | 96.6 |
| 5 | Adelaide | Australia | 96.6 |
| 7 | Perth | Australia | 95.9 |
| 8 | Auckland | New Zealand | 95.7 |
| 9 | Helsinki | Finland | 95.6 |
| 10 | Hamburg | Germany | 95.0 |
| 131 | Kiev | Ukraine | 44.1 |
| 132 | Douala | Cameroon | 44.0 |
| 133 | Harare | Zimbabwe | 42.6 |
| 134 | Karachi | Pakistan | 40.9 |
| 134 | Algiers | Algeria | 40.9 |
| 136 | Port Moresby | PNG | 38.9 |
| 137 | Dhaka | Bangladesh | 38.7 |
| 138 | Lagos | Nigeria | 36.0 |
| 139 | Tripoli | Libya | 35.9 |
| 140 | Damascus | Syria | 30.2 |
The rankings are determined by assigning every city a rating of relative comfort for over 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five broad categories: stability; healthcare; culture and environment; education; and infrastructure.
Each factor in a city is rated as acceptable, tolerable, uncomfortable, undesirable or
intolerable. For qualitative indicators, a rating is awarded based on the judgment of in-house analysts and in-city contributors.
For quantitative indicators, a rating is calculated based on the relative performance of a number of external data points, the EIU said.
According to the EIU, terrorism and war have had a major impact on the stability of affected cities, and global stability in general.
“The continuing weakening of global stability scores has been made uncomfortably apparent by a number of high-profile incidents that have not shown any signs of slowing in recent years.”
Violent acts of terrorism have been reported in many countries, including Turkey, Australia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, France, Belgium and the US.
“This has been a year undoubtedly marked by terrorism. While not a new phenomenon, its frequency and spread have increased noticeably and become even more prominent in the past year.”
“Terrorism has also been compounded by unrest and, in more extreme cases, civil war in some countries. Libya, Syria, Iraq and Ukraine remain the subject of high-profile armed conflicts, while a number of other countries, such as Nigeria, continue to battle insurgent groups,” the group said.
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