Austria’s Vienna has come up top again as the very best city to live in globally, in response to a report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
The Global Liveability Index 2023 attributed Vienna’s success to its “winning combination” of stability, good culture and entertainment, reliable infrastructure, exemplary education and health services.
“It has occupied this position frequently over the past several years, with only the Covid-19 pandemic causing the town to vacate its place at the highest spot,” the report added.
Copenhagen also retains its position because the second most livable city on the planet, while Australian cities Sydney and Melbourne broke into the highest five.
“They’ve seen their scores within the healthcare category improve since last 12 months, after they were still affected by Covid waves that stressed their healthcare systems,” said the research firm.
The annual report rated 172 cities across these categories that outline livability: stability, health care, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.
The index rose last 12 months to achieve a 15-year high because the world recovered from the pandemic, said the EIU. The typical index rating is now 76.2 out of 100, up from 73.2 a 12 months ago.
Top 10 cities to live in
- Vienna (Austria)
- Copenhagen (Denmark)
- Melbourne (Australia)
- Sydney (Australia)
- Vancouver (Canada)
- Zurich (Switzerland)
- Calgary (Canada)
- Geneva (Switzerland)
- Toronto (Canada)
- Osaka (Japan), Auckland (Recent Zealand) — Tie
Asia-Pacific cities make big moves
In keeping with the EIU, Asia-Pacific cities have made a few of the biggest gains on this 12 months’s rating — accounting for eight out of the highest 10 movers.
This might be attributed to “a shift towards normalcy” after the pandemic, it added.
Notably, Recent Zealand’s Wellington moved up 35 spots to twenty third place, while Auckland moved up 25 spots to rank tenth on the index — after experiencing drops in rating last 12 months when Covid-19 forced intermittent lockdowns.
Hong Kong also moved 13 places up the rank to 61st most livable city on the planet.
“Hong Kong has moved quite a good bit,” Syetarn Hansakul, the EIU’s senior analyst said.
“That is due to removal of the Covid restrictions, that has improved the standard of life and the livability in Hong Kong tremendously last 12 months,” she told CNBC’s Squawk Box Asia on Thursday.
The remainder of the world steadily moved to reopen early last 12 months — but Hong Kong closely followed mainland China’s tough zero-Covid policy, and only began to calm down a few of its restrictions in late 2022.
Notable improvements in education and health-care scores were also observed across developing economies of Asia and the Middle East, EIU noted.
“Education has emerged stronger with children returning to colleges alongside a significantly reduced burden on hospitals and healthcare systems,” the report said.
Decline in stability scores
While health-care, education, infrastructure, culture and entertainment scores saw improvements previously 12 months, stability saw a “marginal decline,” said the EIU.
That is as a consequence of instances of civil unrest in lots of cities amid a cost-of-living crisis and uptick of crimes in some cities.
Those in Western Europe particularly, have slipped in rankings as a consequence of increased instances of staff’ strikes — failing to “match gains” made by cities in Asia and the Middle East, the EIU added.
For instance, Germany’s Frankfurt and the Netherland’s Amsterdam fell out of the highest 10.