Melbourne and Sydney have returned to the top of the annual ‘most liveable city’ rankings after a dip during the pandemic.
This year’s list, compiled by The Economist’s Intelligence Unit, rated Melbourne and Sydney as the third and fourth most liveable cities. Vienna and Copenhagen took out the two top spots.
Other Australian cities also rated highly, with Perth and Adelaide equal 12th and Brisbane 16th. Perth and Adelaide were among the biggest improvers compared to last year.
What makes a liveable city?
The Economist’s liveability ranking system scores cities on five categories:
- Stability (e.g. crime, terror, conflict)
- Healthcare
- Culture and Environment (e.g. sport, dining, shopping, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, corruption, climate)
- Education
- Infrastructure (e.g. roads, public transport, housing, energy, water)
Melbourne edges out Sydney
Melbourne and Sydney scored very highly in all five categories.
Both cities received a perfect score (100) for health care, education and infrastructure and 95 out of 100 for stability.
Melbourne edged out Sydney with a slightly higher score for culture and environment (95.8 compared to 94.4).
The top 10 most liveable cities for 2023
- Vienna, Austria (98.4/100)
- Copenhagen, Denmark (98.0)
- Melbourne, Australia (97.7)
- Sydney, Australia (97.4)
- Vancouver, Canada (97.3)
- Zurich, Switzerland (97.1)
- Calgary, Canada (96.8)
- Geneva, Switzerland (96.8)
- Toronto, Canada (96.5)
- = Osaka, Japan (96.0)
= Auckland, New Zealand (96.0)
