Vienna has taken first place out of the 140 cities surveyed in this year’s Global Liveability Index by the Economist Intelligence Unit. According to an article on Cities Today, increases in the stability category allowed Vienna to replace Melbourne, which has topped the list for the past seven years, by just 0.7 per cent.
Australian and Canadian cities took six of the top ten spots in the 2018 ranking, with Melbourne (2), Calgary (4), Sydney (5), Vancouver (6), Toronto (7) and Adelaide (10) all performing strongly. Two Japanese cities featured in the top ten with Osaka (3) and Tokyo (8). Copenhagen (9) was the only other European city to make it into the top ten.
In Asia, Hong Kong came in 35, ranking higher than its regional rival Singapore, which fell two places to 37. Singapore had overtaken Hong Kong to take the 35th spot in 2017.
According to Cities Today, global liveability has improved for the second year in a row, from 74.8 per cent last year to 75.7 per cent today, led by a 2.9 per cent improvement in stability. A total of 66 of the 140 cities surveyed have a liveability score of 80 per cent or more, the Economist reported.
