Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary in world’s top five most livable cities for 2015

For nearly all of the 2010s, Melbourne, Australia has been standing tall as the most livable city in the entire world.

An annual list ranking the world’s most livable cities has once again given props to three in Canada. “This has not been the case in other parts of the world, with instability and unrest features undermining the scores of a number of cities globally”, said Jon Copestake, editor of the EIU survey.

First on the list for the fifth year in a row is Melbourne, Austrailia. Terrorist attacks in France and Tunisa and war in Ukraine have deleterious effects on rankings for many European cities in a point system based on stability (crime and terror), healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure. Melbourne scored 97.5 out of 100 to achieve near perfection.

That’s highest among Canadian cities while Toronto finished fourth and Calgary tied for fifth.

“The EIU ranking, which provides scores for lifestyle challenges in 140 cities worldwide, shows that since 2010 average livability across the world has fallen by 1 percent, led by a 2.2 percent fall in the score for stability and safety”.

Monocle Magazine’s list of most livable cities was released in June, with Tokyo, Japan coming in at the top of the list with Vienna in a close second. The report explained how the rankings were determined.

As for the US, the report notes that “North American cities have largely seen declines” and points to civil unrest, police brutality, and the “the deaths of a number of black people in police custody” as partial reasons.