Those inhabitants of European cities concerned that their city has not made The Economist Intelligence Unit’s list of the world’s Top 10 most-liveable cities can take some comfort from the fact that the four Australasian cities in the list — Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Auckland — are a day’s flying time away and that the three Canadian cities of Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary can be very cold in winter. Europe has three cities in the Top 10 — Vienna, Helsinki and Hamburg — and they can also be very cold in winter. The 140 cities in the EIU report are ranked by liveability factors of stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. Two of the bottom three cities in the EIU’s most-liveable list, an oxymoron if ever there was one, are Damascus in Syria and Tripoli in Libya, both afflicted by civil war.