The Economist Intelligence Unit announced today (21st February 2011) its list of the World’s Most Livable Cities. The highest score and number one ranking was achieved by Vancouver, Canada.
Vancouver: The World’s Most Livable City
For the fifth year in a row Vancouver has been ranked as the number one world’s most livable city by the Economist Intelligence Unit. Vancouver, Canada’s eighth largest city, received a major boost to its infrastructure when it hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics, adding to the services and facilities which have seen the city dominate the Economist's rankings for most of the past decade.
Vancouver received a 100/100 ranking for its health care services, education system and for its culture and environment rating. It also received an impressive 95/100 stability ranking. The report’s authors did note that Vancouver’s crime rate is on the rise. Vancouver’s murder rate of 2.6 per 100,000 is well above the Canadian 1.8 per 100,000 average.
The World’s Most Livable Cities Top 10 List 2011
2. Melbourne, Australia
3. Vienna, Austria
4. Toronto, Canada
5. Calgary, Canada
6. Helsinki, Finland
7. Sydney, Australia
8. (equal) Perth, Australia
8. (equal) Adelaide, Australia
10. Auckland, New Zealand
How the Most Livable City in the World is Chosen
In order to decide the world’s most livable city, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranks 140 cites from around the world. There are 30 indicators which each city is judges against from five broad categories:
- Stability
- Healthcare
- Culture and environment
- Education
- Infrastructure
Each city receives an overall rating of our 100; 100 in considered to be ideal and 1 is intolerable. The health care facilities and education standards offered by Australia and Canada were are a major factor in these countries’ cities continued dominance of the World’s Most Livable Cities Top 10 list. All cities in the list, except for Helsinki, received a 100/100 ranking for their education facilities systems.
In 2011 rankings, just 2.3 percentage points separated the number 1 ranked Vancouver, and the number 10 ranked Auckland, New Zealand.
Mid-Sized Cities Dominated World’s Most Livable Cities 2011 Top 10
In a statement accompanying the release of the Economist Intelligence Unit’s livability survey, the report’s author Jon Copestake explained that ‘Mid-sized cities in developed countries with relatively low population densities tend to score well by having all the cultural and infrastructural benefits on offer with fewer problems related to crime or congestion.’
Vancouver’s population sits at just below 600,000 with just over 2.1 million people living within its metropolitan area. Sydney, Australia is the largest city in the Top 10 with a population of over 4.5 million.
Europe’s Most Livable City 2011
Vienna was the only city from the 2010 World’s Most Livable Cities List to move down in rankings. Vienna slipped from second to third place. According to Mercer’s 2010 Quality of Living Report, Vienna is the World’s Most Livable City. Mercer’s slightly different ranking system, which uses categories including housing, consumer goods, socio-cultural environment (censorship, limitations on personal freedom, etc) placed Vienna in first place, followed by the Swiss cities of Zurich and Geneva.
The Mercer Quality of Living Report’s ranking system is primarily prepared to assist government agencies and multinational corporations when transferring employees from one country to another. Its rankings are dominated by European cities, with Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich and Bern all making the Top 10.
The World’s Least Livable City for 2011
Harare, Zimbabwe ranked 140th out of 140 cities survey by the World’s Most Livable Cities report. Its total score out of one hundred was just 37.5. The report noted that despite the hopes which are held for elections in 2011, scores of just 25% for stability and 20.8% for health care paint a bleak picture and Harare’s and Zimbabwe’s future.
The report also deemed as intolerable Harare’s prevalence of petty crime, its threat of civil unrest or conflict, and its quality of public transport. Harare is home to almost 3 million people, many who live in extreme poverty.
The World’s Most Livable Cities Bottom 10 Ranked Cities
131. Colombo, Sri Lanka
132. Dakar, Senegal
133. Tehran, Iran
134. Douala, Cameroon
135. Karachi, Pakistan
136. Algiers, Algeria
137. Lagos, Nigeria
138. Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
139. Dhaka, Bangladesh
140. Harare, Zimbabwe
About the Economist’s World’s Most Livable Cities List
The Economist’s World’s Most Livable Cities list is drawn from the The Economist Intelligence Unit’s livability survey. Founded in 1946, the Economist Intelligence Unit in the in-house research unit for the Economist magazine, and employs over 120 full time staff. The survey is prepared with a number of intended uses including benchmarking perceptions of development levels to assigning a hardship allowance as part of expatriate relocation packages.
Sources
"A Summary of the Livability Ranking and Overview." The Economist Intelligence Unit, 21 February 2011.
Cate Allan - Cate Allan is a Melbourne-based writer and editor. She has published widely on language, travel and the arts.
