Key Points
- Global City Recovery: The latest liveability index by EIU reveals that cities worldwide have fully recovered from the detrimental effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on living conditions.
- Expatriate-Friendly Destinations: The liveability survey not only assists companies in determining hardship allowances for employees relocating to new cities but also provides insights into the most desirable places to live, particularly for expatriates.
- Regional Transformations: Post-pandemic improvements in education and healthcare have led to rising living standards in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
The latest liveability index from EIU reveals that living conditions in cities worldwide have fully recovered from the decline caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The index assesses living conditions in 173 cities across five categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. The cities in the Asia-Pacific region have experienced the most significant rebound. The index also indicates that city life is currently better than at any time in the past 15 years. Below, we present the rankings of the cities that performed the best.
- Vienna – 98.4
- Copenhagen – 98.0
- Melbourne – 97.7
- Sydney – 97.4
- Vancouver – 97.3
- Zurich – 97.1
- Calgary – 96.8
- Geneva – 96.8
- Toronto – 96.5
- Osaka – 96.0
- Auckland – 96.0
Originally designed to assist companies in calculating hardship allowances for employees relocating to new, potentially less tolerable cities, the liveability survey also provides insights into the most and least desirable cities to live in, particularly for expatriates. Vienna, known for its excellent combination of stability, culture, entertainment, and reliable infrastructure, secures the top spot for the fourth time in five years. Copenhagen, a similarly sized city with comparable characteristics, ranks second. Melbourne, a consistent high performer in the past, takes the third position. Overall, nine out of the top ten cities are small to mid-sized, and all ten, as well as a majority of the top 50, are located in affluent countries. Large cities with high levels of crime, congestion, and density tend to fare worse in the rankings. London, dropping 12 places from the previous year, stands at 46th, while New York falls ten spots to 69th. On the other hand, Wellington and Auckland have made remarkable progress by climbing 35 and 25 places, respectively, compared to last year’s rankings. Hanoi has risen by 20 positions, and Kuala Lumpur has jumped by 19 places. The improvements in education and healthcare scores across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, following the pandemic, are the primary reasons for the increase in living standards this year.
At the bottom of the table, Damascus has remained the least liveable city in the index for over a decade. Tripoli is just above it, although its score is nearly ten points higher than that of Syria’s war-torn capital. Kyiv, despite its efforts to protect itself from the conflict, is also among the ten least liveable cities. It was excluded from the index in 2022 due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during the data collection period. Kyiv’s infrastructure score of 23.2 out of 100 is the lowest in the index, largely due to the impact of Russian bombings. Among the five categories covered by the EIU survey, the stability score was the only one that experienced a decline on average in 2023.
While stability scores in many Eastern European cities rebounded this year after falling in 2022 due to their proximity to Ukraine, stability deteriorated in other regions. Strikes in Greece, pension protests in France, and deadly clashes in Israel and Peru contributed to lower scores in those countries. Inflation could further reduce stability scores and negatively affect overall liveability scores in various parts of the world over the next year.
Credits: Photo by Jacek Dylag on Unsplash