5 Australian Cities Ranked in "World's 20 Most Liveable Cities of 2019"

A 2019 report by the Economist Intelligence Unit has included five Australian cities in its Top 20 Most Liveable Cities list – factoring in criteria like stability, healthcare, culture and infrastructure.

Noticeably, however, affordability and congestion aren’t considered in the ranking, which pushes Sydney closer to the top than it might appear in other listings.

The 2019 top 10 are:

Vienna, Austria
Melbourne, Australia
Sydney, Australia
Osaka, Japan
Calgary, Canada
Vancouver, Canada
Toronto, Canada
Tokyo, Japan
Copenhagen, Denmark
Adelaide, Australia

The Global Liveability Index ranks 140 cities worldwide, with each city being assigned a score for over 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five broad categories. These categories include stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

Australia has ranked well this year, with Melbourne ranking 2^nd, and Sydney jumping from 5^th to 3^rd place, ranking well in the areas of safety and the environment. Not only do three Australian cities feature in the top ten, but Perth (14^th) and Brisbane (18^th) also feature in the top 20.

“It’s the smaller cities that tend to be more adaptable, and so thrive on a list like this.”

Social researcher Mark McCrindle told Seven News that the report, which this year considers the element of climate change in its criteria, shows that a city’s sustainability is important.

“If you look at the list, the larger, global, mega-cities did not rank very well,” he said. “In fact, Sydney and Melbourne, apart from Tokyo, are the largest cities in the top ten. It’s the smaller cities that tend to be more adaptable, and so thrive on a list like this.

“Larger cities, like London and New York didn’t rank so well. These are cities of 8 or 9 million people, so have greater complexity, safety, infrastructure and instability issues, which are reasons why these cities were marked down. Two areas which aren’t considered are affordability and congestion.”

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McCrindle Research has created a major report into the future of Australia, the 2019 Analyse Australia report, featuring demographic & workforce trends towards 2030.

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