Posted on 06/25/2023 9:57:42 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Living conditions in cities across the world have fully recovered from the deterioration caused by the covid-19 pandemic, EIU’s latest liveability index shows. It rates living conditions in 173 cities across five categories: stability, health care, culture and environment, education and infrastructure. Cities in the Asia-Pacific region have rebounded the most. The index also suggests that life in cities is a bit better than at any time in the past 15 years. Our charts below show which cities topped the ranking.
The liveability survey was designed to help companies calculate hardship allowances for staff who were moving to a new—and possibly less tolerable—city. As a by-product, it also provides a snapshot of the most, and least, desirable cities to live in, at least if you’re an expat. Vienna, with its excellent mix of stability, culture and entertainment, and reliable infrastructure, tops the ranking for the fourth time in five years. Copenhagen, a similarly sized city with many of the same characteristics, is second. Melbourne, a fixture at the top of the ranking in the past, comes in third. In all, nine of the top ten cities are small to mid-sized; all ten, and indeed most of the top 50, are in rich countries. Big cities with high levels of crime, congestion and density tend to fare less well. London—down 12 places from a year ago—comes in 46th and New York is down ten spots to 69th.
Wellington and Auckland have climbed 35 and 25 places compared with a year ago; Hanoi is up 20 and Kuala Lumpur jumped 19 positions. Post-pandemic improvements in education and health-care scores across Asia, Africa and the Middle East were the main reasons for this year’s rise in living standards.
At the bottom of the table, Damascus has been the least liveable city in the index for more than a decade. Tripoli is one space above, although its score is nearly ten points higher than that of Syria’s war-ravaged capital. Kyiv, despite its efforts to protect itself from the war, also features in the bottom ten. It was excluded from the index in 2022 because Russia invaded Ukraine while the data were being collected. Its infrastructure score of 23.2 out of 100 is the lowest in the index, thanks to Russian bombs.
Of the five categories covered by EIU’s survey, only the stability score dropped on average in 2023. Stability scores in many eastern European cities, which fell in 2022 because they are close to Ukraine, rose this year. But stability deteriorated elsewhere. Striking workers in Greece, pension protests in France and deadly clashes in Israel and Peru reduced scores in those countries. Inflation could lead to further falls in stability scores, and thus damage overall liveability scores, in many parts of the world over the next year.
1. Vienna, Austria
2. Copenhagen, Denmark
3. Melbourne, Australia
4. Sydney, Australia
5. Vancouver, Canada
6. Zurich, Switzerland
7. Calgary, Canada
7. Geneva, Switzerland
9. Toronto, Canada
10. Osaka, Japan | Auckland, New Zealand (Tie)
164 Douala, Cameroon
165 Kyiv, Ukraine
166 Harare, Zimbabwe
166 Dhaka, Bangladesh
168 Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
169 Karachi, Pakistan
170 Lagos, Nigeria
171 Algiers, Algeria
172 Tripoli, Libya
173 Damascus, Syria
ICBSOT
Most of these cities have government that went full Karen during the virus shutdown, racial strife and squalor.
Anti American Euro nonsense.
Yeah, Switzerland is great, if your net worth is about $10 million.
If there is any truth to this crap, why aren’t all the foreign freeloaders sneaking into those countries. That just isn’t happening. They are all sneakin’ into America.
I heard Vancouver has become a homeless cesspool just like San Francisco.
The economist calls for everyone to live in cities, then releases a short list of “livable” cities...
The truth is between the lines, yes?
More accurate way to put it, is most large USA Democrat run cities are shitholes.
I’ve lived in the #1 city. Vienna is definitely a pretty city and it has a great deal to offer by way of culture and history - certainly equal to if not better than Paris in that regard.
That said, I hope you are quite well off because Vienna is EXPENSIVE. Even among Western European cities which are expensive, Vienna is more expensive. Its on a par with Swiss cities when it comes to the prices for everything. So if you don’t have the money, Vienna isn’t so great because you’re not going to be able to afford to do anything or go anywhere.
Oh, I’ve also lived in Geneva. Like Vienna it is terribly expensive. I remember a mid priced type restaurant....think TGI Fridays or something comparable had hamburgers that cost $27. This was 24 years ago! So that burger is probably over $50 today. Starting to get an idea as to how expensive things are?
I’ve been to Copenhagen and Zurich. Same deal. Expensive as hell. By this point Copenhagen is probably starting to get overrun with feral 3rd worlders. The Swiss were a lot more strict about who they let in so Zurich and Geneva are probably still OK.
If you want real livability in Europe try Budapest. It was easily my favorite city on that continent and I lived in Budapest twice. I’ve heard Prague is similarly nice. It sure looked nice when I visited 3-4 times. Everything in Eastern Europe is a lot more affordable, its still beautiful and they did not allow their countries to be invaded by hordes of military age males from the 3rd world who have no respect for the place.
I was going to say that there better not be any large American cities on the list. They are both expensive and filthy, dangerous, totalitarian dumps.
I’m glad they stick with cities. Way out here in the rural areas is nowhere for a city slicker to be...
A livable city is an oxymoron.
That index is racist. (/s)
Hmm, no issues with Muslims there, I take it? /s
RE: If there is any truth to this crap, why aren’t all the foreign freeloaders sneaking into those countries.
Oh they have… Europe is slowly being Islamicized.
However, they still don’t have the equivalents of our Joe Biden and Alejandro Mayorkas as their leaders, so, the immigration Dam hasn’t fully burst yet.
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