Three Canadian cities among most livable in the world [Infographic]

Economist lists Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary among top 10

Three Canadian cities are ranked in the top 10 of The Economist's annual ranking of the world's "most livable" cities.

The Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) claims its annual Live ability Survey could be used to "assign a hardship allowance as part of expatriate relocation packages," among other things.

The magazine says its ranking "assesses which locations around the world provide the best or the worst living conditions" based on five categories: stability, health care, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.

But that seem not to apply to those living in the City of Melbourne Australia, which for the fourth year running has been declared the best city in the world to live. Followed by Vienna.

Vancouver aerial viewCC BY-SA 2.0

Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary are ranked third, fourth and fifth (tied with Adelaide, Australia), respectively, on the distinguished magazine's annual ranking of 140 cities.

Australian are buoyant by stability, superlative healthcare, infrastructure and education as well as a murder rate of 3.1 per 100,000 people, half the global average of 6.2.

The top 10 list hasn't changed since 2011 and of the 140 cities surveyed, only 20 changed score in the last year.

Toronto Water Front

Instability re-emerging as a key factor in influencing global scores. "Events in Ukraine, in particular, have had significant knock-on effects for cities such as Kiev, Moscow and St Petersburg.

"With The War and instability in Syria, the City of Damascus score continued to decline."

Tehran in Iran, Tripoli in Libya and Amman in Jordan saw their scores improve, having "enjoyed periods of relative stability following significant falls in liveability."

Galgary Downtown
Photo courtesy:
Calgary Downtown Association

Not surprisingly, cities currently experiencing violent uprisings were clustered at the bottom. But over the last five years, global liveability has declined overall, Kiev (Ukraine), Tripoli (Libya) and Damascus (Syria) have seen the biggest falls in liveability over the last five years, says the report.

"Vancouver saw a record low number of murders in 2013, after a decade-long decline that pushed homicide rates down to 1.5 per 100,000 of population in 2012.," the report notes.

In general, the ranking shows a broad trend that mid-sized cities in wealthy countries with low population densities score well. Seven of the top 10 cities on the list are in Australia or Canada,

Vancouver scored so well in part because of its good score on crime issues.

Economist's annual ranking of cities

10 most liveable cities

1. Melbourne
2. Vienna, Austria
3. Vancouver, British Columbia
4. Toronto
5. Adelaide, Australia
6. Calgary, Alberta
7. Sydney
8. Helsinki, Finland
9. Perth, Australia
10. Auckland, New Zealand

10 least liveable cities

131. Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire
132. Tripoli, Libya

133. Douala, Cameroon
134. Harare, Zimbabwe
135. Algiers, Algeria
136. Karachi, Pakistan
137. Lagos, Nigeria
138. Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
139. Dhaka, Bangladesh
140. Damascus, Syria