Austria’s Vienna has come up top again as the greatest city to stay in globally, in accordance with a report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
The Global Liveability Index 2023 attributed Vienna’s success to its “winning combination” of stability, good tradition and leisure, dependable infrastructure, exemplary training and well being providers.
“It has occupied this position regularly over the past several years, with only the Covid-19 pandemic causing the city to vacate its place at the top spot,” the report added.
Copenhagen additionally retains its place as the second most livable city in the world, whereas Australian cities Sydney and Melbourne broke into the top 5.
“They have seen their scores in the healthcare category improve since last year, when they were still affected by Covid waves that stressed their healthcare systems,” mentioned the analysis agency.
The annual report rated 172 cities throughout these classes that outline livability: stability, well being care, tradition and setting, training and infrastructure.
The index rose final 12 months to achieve a 15-year excessive as the world recovered from the pandemic, mentioned the EIU. The common index rating is now 76.2 out of 100, up from 73.2 a 12 months in the past.
Top 10 cities to stay in
- Vienna (Austria)
- Copenhagen (Denmark)
- Melbourne (Australia)
- Sydney (Australia)
- Vancouver (Canada)
- Zurich (Switzerland)
- Calgary (Canada)
- Geneva (Switzerland)
- Toronto (Canada)
- Osaka (Japan), Auckland (New Zealand) — Tie
Asia-Pacific cities make large strikes
According to the EIU, Asia-Pacific cities have made a few of the greatest good points on this 12 months’s rating — accounting for eight out of the top 10 movers.
This may be attributed to “a shift towards normalcy” after the pandemic, it added.
Notably, New Zealand’s Wellington moved up 35 spots to 23rd place, whereas Auckland moved up 25 spots to rank 10th on the index — after experiencing drops in rating final 12 months when Covid-19 pressured intermittent lockdowns.
Hong Kong additionally moved 13 locations up the rank to 61st most livable city in the world.
“Hong Kong has moved quite a fair bit,” Syetarn Hansakul, the EIU’s senior analyst mentioned.
“That’s because of the removal of the Covid restrictions, that has improved the quality of life and the livability in Hong Kong tremendously last year,” she instructed CNBC’s Squawk Box Asia on Thursday.
The remainder of the world steadily moved to reopen early final 12 months — however Hong Kong closely followed mainland China’s tough zero-Covid policy, and solely started to relax some of its restrictions in late 2022.
Notable enhancements in training and health-care scores had been additionally noticed throughout growing economies of Asia and the Middle East, EIU famous.
“Education has emerged stronger with children returning to schools alongside a significantly reduced burden on hospitals and healthcare systems,” the report mentioned.
Decline in stability scores
While health-care, training, infrastructure, tradition and leisure scores noticed enhancements in the previous 12 months, stability noticed a “marginal decline,” mentioned the EIU.
That’s resulting from instances of civil unrest in many cities amid a cost-of-living disaster and uptick of crimes in some cities.
Those in Western Europe particularly, have slipped in rankings resulting from elevated situations of employees’ strikes — failing to “match gains” made by cities in Asia and the Middle East, the EIU added.
For instance, Germany’s Frankfurt and the Netherland’s Amsterdam fell out of the top 10.
