The results are in on the 2019 Global Liveability report, and Australian cities have maintained their status with Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide ranking second, third and tenth respectively.
Each year, Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) assesses cities based on five different categories: healthcare, culture and environment, stability, education and infrastructure. These categories are broken down further and scored across different indicators such as the prevalence of petty crime, accessibility of private and public healthcare, level of corruption, accessibility of education or quality of public transport.
The report states that most of the cities earned their place in the top 10 because they have well-funded public healthcare systems, compulsory and high-quality education and accessible road and rail infrastructure. These services are possible because of the presence of an absolute democratic electoral system.
Although the latest rankings are quite similar to last year’s report, there are noticeable shifts made by some cities within the top 10. Australia and Canada each had three cities in the top 10, and Japan featured twice. Austrian capital Vienna took the top place for the second consecutive year, scoring 100 points in three categories: healthcare, education and infrastructure. Runner-up Melbourne got a total score of 98.4.
Sydney on the other hand, has made significant improvement and jumped from fifth to third place this year. According to the EIU, Sydney has made efforts in improving its culture and environment score by getting involved in climate change action.
The following top cities have scored a near perfect score in all the factors that the (EIU) considers a liveable city.
Top 10
| Rank |
City |
Country |
Score |
| 1 |
Vienna |
Austria |
99.1 |
| 2 |
Melbourne |
Australia |
98.4 |
| 3 |
Sydney |
Australia |
98.1 |
| 4 |
Osaka |
Japan |
97.7 |
| 5 |
Calgary |
Canada |
97.5 |
| 6 |
Vancouver |
Canada |
97.3 |
| 7 |
Toronto |
Canada |
97.2 |
| 8 |
Tokyo |
Japan |
97.2 |
| 9 |
Copenhagen |
Denmark |
96.8 |
| 10 |
Adelaide |
Australia |
96.6 |
(Credit: The Economic Intelligence Unit, 2019)
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