World’s most liveable cities 2018 – Two Asian cities in the Top 10

PHOTO: Vienna pips Melbourne for the top spot this year

The popular, and often-quoted ‘World’s Most Liveable Cities’ have been announced for 2018 and there’s only two Asian cities in the list, both in the same country.

After seven years at the top of the list, Australia’s southern capital, Melbourne, has lost its crown as the world’s most liveable city. The city, Australia’s second largest, came in second place on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2018 ranking missing out on the top spot by just 0.7%.

The city was beaten this year by Austria’s Vienna, which received an overall score of 99.1% on the annual list. The list is based on cities’ stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure. The survey is conducted annually over 140 cities.

The Economist Intelligence Unit says Vienna’s rise to the top is due, primarily, to relative stability across much of Europe after high-profile terrorist attacks in recent years. But Melbourne’s unseating from the top spot isn’t the only noticeable shift after years of very little change among the highest ranks.

Japan’s Osaka and Tokyo have now moved into the top ten, coming in third and seventh place respectively.
Both cities move up this year thanks to a decline in crime rates as well as improvements in public transportation.

“Osaka stands out especially, having climbed six positions, to third place, over the past six months, closing the gap with Melbourne.” (Osaka and Melbourne are ‘sister-cities’)

Hamburg and Helsinki, who held tenth and ninth place last year, have dropped out of the top ten. Another European city has moved into ninth place to replace them, Copenhagen, which achieved a score of 96.8%, making it the only other European city in the top rankings.

Whilst Australia may have missed out on the top spot this time, three of its cities were among the best scoring, with Adelaide 10th and Sydney in 5th place this year

Toronto tied with Tokyo for seventh position this year with a score of 97.2% and Calgary and Vancouver taking fourth and sixth place.

Hong Kong has improved its ranking this year moving up to 35th place. However, fellow Asian cities Kuala Lumpur, Kathmandu, Colombo and Dhaka didn’t fare as well, with all four listed among the nine cities whose livability ranking has declined in the past year.

1. Vienna, Austria
2. Melbourne, Australia
3. Osaka, Japan
4. Calgary, Canada
5. Sydney, Australia
6. Vancouver, Canada
7. (tie) Toronto, Canada
7. (tie) Tokyo, Japan
9. Copenhagen, Denmark
10. Adelaide, Australia

You can view the entire list but you’ll need to register HERE.

Melbourne spent seven years at the top, this year down to Number Two