If your Monday is going well so far, allow us to share a piece of news that is both good and bad at the same time. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Index has released a list of the best places to live around the world and the good news is that you now have a pared-down list you can refer to when making your weekly ‘Give Up Everything And Move To A New City To Start Afresh’ plan after any minor inconvenience. The bad news is that your city might not have made it to the list.
Vienna, Austria, was named the best place to live in the world, retaining its top spot on the list as it has for eight of the last 10 semi-annual surveys. Denmark’s capital city Copenhagen was declared the runner-up.
“The Austrian capital slipped down our rankings in 2021 when its famous museums and restaurants faced restrictions to contain the pandemic, but this was a rare slip-up,” said the report. “The city continues to offer an unsurpassed combination of stability, good infrastructure, strong education, and health care services, and plenty of culture and entertainment.”
Australian cities Melbourne and Sydney were placed at No. 3 and 4 respectively, with Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Zurich, Osaka, and Auckland following behind.
The survey closely reviewed 173 cities from February 13, 2022 to March 12, 2023 and rated these for 30 factors in five categories, including stability, healthcare, infrastructure, culture, and education. A team of expert analysts and contributors from each city were consulted for cultural subtleties that could affect the cities’ rankings.
“The removal of COVID-19-related restrictions has overall boded well for global liveability in 2023,” said Upasana Dutt, the head of EIU’s Liveability Index, in a statement. “Education has emerged stronger with children returning to schools alongside a significantly reduced burden on hospitals and health care systems, with some notable improvements in cities across developing economies of Asia and the Middle East. As the world’s political and economic axis continues to shift eastwards, we expect the cities in these regions to move slowly up our liveability rankings.”
There you have it! Now if only we can have a list of places where weekends last for five days and Mondays don’t exist!
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