World's Most Livable Cities

Liveability ranking

The World's Most Livable Cities is an informal name given to any list of cities as they rank on a reputable annual survey of living conditions. The two best-known are the Mercer Quality of Living Survey and The Economist's World's Most Livable Cities.




With low crime, little threat from instability or terrorism and a highly developed transport and communications infrastructure, Canada and Australia are home to the most liveable destinations in the world. Four of the ten most liveable cities surveyed by the Economist Intelligence Unit are in Australia, and two of the top five are Canadian (see full report). Vancouver is the most attractive destination, with a liveability index of just 1.3% (see table).







Quality of Life Survey

Mercer's Quality of Life Survey is released annually, comparing 215 cities based on 39 criteria. New York is given a score of 100 and other cities are rated in comparison.
Important criteria are safety, education, hygiene, recreation, political-economic stability and public transportation. The importance of the list lies primarily in that internationally operating companies use it to determine where they will open offices or plants and how much they pay the employees.
In the 2008 list, the top is dominated by cities from Europe, with several entries from Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Switzerland and Germany both have 3 cities in the top 10, which is especially striking for Switzerland, given the size of the country. The first entries from other countries are the USA at 28, Singapore at 32 and Japan at 35. In the top 50, there are no other countries listed. Bagdad was at the bottom of the list. Of the 25 countries at the bottom, 18 are from Africa. Compared to lists from previous years, countries from South Asia (mainly India), East Asia (mainly China), the Middle East and Eastern Europe are clearly on the rise.
Mercer also has a 'Personal Safety' list, which is also dominated by EU and Swiss cities, with the top 5 being Luxembourg, Bern, Geneva, Helsinki and Zurich.
In the 2007 Mercer Quality of Life Survey the top five places included Zurich on 108.1 points, Geneva (108.0), Vancouver and Vienna on 107.7 points, Auckland on 107.3 and Dusseldorf on 107.2. Cities particularly from Switzerland, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Canada rated well. All of Australia's major capitals were rated highly with Sydney at 9, Melbourne at 17, Perth at 21, Adelaide at 30 and Brisbane at 31. New Zealand's capital Wellington ranked at 12 and it's largest city Auckland ranked at 5. Canada did equally as well with Vancouver at 3, Toronto at 15, Ottawa at 18, Montreal 22 and Calgary at 24. at The top-rated USA cities were Honolulu at 27 and San Francisco at 29.

World's Most Livable Cities

The Economist Intelligence Unit's livability shows cities in Canada, Australia, Austria and Switzerland as the most ideal destinations thanks to a widespread availability of goods and services, low personal risk and an effective infrastructure. The report placed Vancouver, Canada as the most livable city in the world, with Melbourne, Australia taking second place followed by Vienna. The survey said "In the current global political climate, it is no surprise that the most desirable destinations are those with a lower perceived threat of terrorism." [1]
Australia's other major cities (Perth at 4, Adelaide at 7 and Sydney at 9) claimed positions in the top ten. Other Canadian cities also ranked highly in the survey. In addition to Vancouver, the Canadian cities Toronto and Calgary were all placed within the top 10, with Ottawa and Edmonton ranked within the top 25. Vienna, Austria, and Geneva and Zurich in Switzerland also ranked within the top ten.
Harare, Zimbabwe was rated the worst city in the world to call home. African, South Asian, and Middle Eastern cities were generally the worst performing in the EIU's rankings.

Source=Wikipedia