By Marina Wang
The results are in: according to the Economist Intelligence Unit of the world’s most livable cities, three Canadian cities have placed in the top ten, with Calgary ranking #4, Vancouver #6, and Toronto tying with Tokyo, Japan for #7.
Each year the research and analysis branch of the London-based Economist magazine ranks 140 cities from around the world, scoring their livability based on factors such as crime rates, health care, culture, environment and infrastructure. The results tend to favour mid-sized cities, as large metropolises tend to score lower in cost of living, crime, and public infrastructure.
What’s new this year is that Vienna, Austria has replaced historic winner Melbourne, Australia as the frontrunner. Melbourne has topped the list for the past seven years, but Vienna was able to creep ahead with increased security scores. The scores for Vienna and Melbourne were 99.1% and 98.4 respectively.
Calgary was the highest ranking Canadian city with a score of 97.5%, with nearly perfect scores in all categories except for culture and environment. Vancouver had a score of 97.3% with marks dipping in stability and infrastructure. Toronto had a score of 97.2% with a lowered score in infrastructure.
Other high ranking cities were Osaka Japan, Sydney Australia, Copenhagen Denmark, and Adelaide Australia. Among the lowest ranking cities were Lagos Nigeria, Dhaka Bangladesh, and Damascus Syria.
