Vienna has been crowned the world’s most liveable city for the third year in a row, according to a new survey from The Economist. The Austrian capital scored full marks in terms of its stability, healthcare, education, and infrastructure.
The Danish capital, Copenhagen, and Zurich in Switzerland followed Vienna in the rankings. Melbourne in Australia and Calgary in Canada completed the top five in the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Global Liveability Index.
On the other hand, Dublin, Ireland, has slipped down the rankings to the 39th position. This is a drop of seven places from its 32nd position last year. The biggest faller in the past year was Tel Aviv in Israel, which fell by 20 places to 112th.
The index ranks the liveability of 173 cities across five categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. Despite some cities experiencing a drop in their rankings, overall global liveability has slightly increased over the past year.
However, this improvement is marginal and is being held back by geopolitical conflicts, civil unrest, and a housing crisis across many of the cities amid inflation. The report suggests that the stress on liveability is unlikely to ease in the near future.
The least liveable city was Damascus, the capital of war-torn Syria. Kyiv also stayed in the bottom ten in the rankings as the Ukraine war continues following Russia’s invasion of its neighbour in 2022.
