Melbourne remains world’s most-livable city
For the seventh consecutive year, Melbourne ranks as the most-livable city in the world, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Livability Report 2017, released in August.
With an overall score of 97.5 out of 100, Melbourne narrowly edges out the other top-ranking cities, with Vienna in second place (97.4), Vancouver in third place (97.3), Toronto in fourth place (97.2), and Calgary, Canada, and Adelaide, Australia, tied for fifth place with an overall score of 96.6. The remaining top 10 are Perth, Australia (95.9); Auckland, New Zealand (95.7); Helsinki, Finland (95.6); and Hamburg, Germany (95.0).
The report surveys 140 cities based on the livability factors of stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. As one might imagine, the report indicates growing instability (related to terrorism, geopolitical tension, social unrest and civil war) around the globe is causing volatility in the stability scores of numerous cities.
“Western Europe has become a focal point for mounting concerns, and repeated attacks in France and U.K. have had a contagion effect, raising terror alerts and lowering stability scores in cities across the region,” states the report. “However, there are other factors that could prove to be destabilizing. Unrest has grown in some countries, particularly over the migration crisis, and the British vote to leave the E.U. could pave the way for further uncertainty and political conflict.”
Asia remains no stranger to potential flashpoints affecting geopolitical stability, and civil unrest in the United States is mounting because of the proposed policies of President Donald Trump, according to the report.
But despite ongoing terrorism and other threats, category-score improvements on factors other than stability have illustrated higher positive index movement in the survey overall since 2016.
