Melbourne surpasses Vancouver as world’s most liveable city as Sydney drops to seventh

Larry SchlesingerDecember 8, 2020

Melburnians and Adelaidians can claim bragging rights over Sydneysiders for another year at least with the influential Economist Intelligence Unit naming Melbourne the world’s most liveable city.

Melbourne took over top ranking from Vancouver in Canada with a score of 97.5%, while Sydney ranked seventh overall – one place lower than its sixth-place ranking last year.

Noteably Adelaide moved up the three places to joint fifth in the ranking thanks to an improvement in the South Australian capital's infrastructure score.

Melbourne's score of 97.5% is just shy of a perfect score, with the city only losing points for climate, culture and petty crime.

“Australian cities continue to thrive in terms of liveability: Not only do they benefit from the natural advantages of low population density, but they have continued to improve with some high profile infrastructure investments," Economist Intelligence Unit survey editor Jon Copestake said from London.

"In Adelaide projects completed in recent years under the Strategic Infrastructure Plan for South Australia have been enough to move the city above Sydney, whose score is unchanged."

Melbourne may claim national bragging rights, but four of the five Australian cities surveyed are in the top ten of the global index and are separated by just 1.6 percentage points," he added.

London, which hosted this year's Olympic Games, dropped in the index as a result of riots that took place in the UK last year.  As a result, the city fell two places to 55th in the ranking.

Dhaka in Bangladesh has the unenviable title of being the least liveable location surveyed.

The liveability report surveys 140 locations around the world to assess the best or the worst living conditions.

It originated as a means of testing whether Human Resource Departments needed to assign a hardship allowance as part of expatriate relocation packages. It has since evolved as a broad benchmarking tool used by city councils, organisations or corporate entities looking to test locations against one another.

Cities are scored on political and social stability, crime rates and access to quality health care. It also measures the diversity and standard of cultural events and the natural environment; education (school and university); and the standard of infrastructure, including public transport.

For more on Sydney's present and t, download our free eBook  Sydney: Embracing the World of Tomorrow

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Larry Schlesinger

Larry Schlesinger was a property writer at Property Observer

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