Melbourne ‘most livable’ city

Although the top five cities remain unchanged more than a third overall saw a change in their score with the majority of those suffering a fall in standards ‘reflecting a deterioration in stability in many cities around the world’.

Melbourne has again topped the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Liveability Survey, with South Australia’s capital Adelaide coming in in fifth place.

The Economist survey placed Perth eighth in the rankings, while Brisbane was 18th.

The most liveable places, notes the EIU, tend to be “mid-sized cities in wealthier countries with a relatively low population density”, which explains the low ranking of near-megacities like London and New York and goes some way to explaining Melbourne’s continued place in the Sunday.

A decreasing homicide rate was a contributing factor to the Victorian capital’s success.

The top five liveable cities in the world all come from Australia, Canada and Austria and ranked according to healthcare, education, culture, environment and infrastructure.

Each city was given a rating out of 100.

“Conflict will not just cause disruption in its own right, it will also damage infrastructure, overburden hospitals and undermine the availability of goods, services and recreational activities”, the report stated. The EIU puts this decline down to incidences such as the shootings in France and Tunisia, conflict zones in Syria, Ukraine and Libya, along with civil unrest in the U.S.

European liveability has slumped particularly over the past five years, as Zurich is the only city in Western Europe where liveability has improved – if only marginally.

Lord mayor Robert Doyle said the liveability branding carried real weight, especially in Asia, where Melbourne’s ranking gave it an edge in the tourism and education markets.

Another Australian city, Adelaide, also made the list tying for the fifth spot with the Canadian city of Calgary.